Sonic: Just Below First Place
by HypernovaSonic
Summary: A Sonic story where Silver, along with Blaze, are in the near future instead of the distant future. Silver is just a young hedgehog who lives in a world ruled by the evil Dr. Eggman. One day he is separated from his two closest friends. He meets a girl named Blaze who's parents have been kidnapped by Eggman. They then set off on a quest to save their friends and family.
1. Just a Normal Day

_My name is Silver. I live on the planet Mobius, or, at least what's left of it. A few years ago, about just after I was born, Dr. Eggman killed the few capable of stopping him. Except for two. Those two are ones who used to be good friends with the Blue Blur himself, Sonic The Hedgehog. But all they really care about now is staying alive, and keeping me alive. Wait, did I forget to explain that?_

I'm only ten at this point, waiting in a random room, in a random building, with my "lame dad" Tails. We're waiting for my "cool dad" Knuckles, (don't worry, they're not a couple) to get back with whatever supplies he's found. We've been moving around a lot, you probably could have guessed, but "Egghead" as I've heard Tails call him, is after us. So, my life gets super boring. Constantly moving, or waiting for what feels like forever, either way, it gets to be pretty lame after a while.

Tails and I aren't exactly talking to each other. There's not a lot to talk about when your life just consists of running and hiding, and especially if you spend every waking moment of it together. So we just sit there in silence, wondering when one of us will have something to say. I can't help but bring something up, my real dad. And don't worry, I have a dad, I wasn't conceived by midichlorians, or something stupid like that. I've always been curious about the past, what life was like before Egghead turned it all to hell. Tails and Knuckles don't really seem to enjoy talking about my dad. But what little they have said makes me want to meet him. They say he died trying to save me, and he put up a good fight too. Knuckles also told me that he knew my dad personally, and so did Tails. They even came to rescue me from Eggman when my dad failed.

They've told me more about my dad, about adventures they've had alongside him, with the rest of their friends too. That means my dad probably fought against Eggman with Sonic the Hedgehog! Now there's a guy I'd like to meet.

So to pass time I started talking to Tails about my dad. "So..."  
"So?" Tails replied.  
"How exactly did my dad die?" I blurt out as fast as I can, as to not drag this awfully forced conversation on longer.

Tails was quiet for a moment, and showed some sort of hint of regret in his features. "Well..." He started off. "Your father was chasing after Eggman, he had kidnapped you, and was using you to taunt your dad. Knuckles, a few other friends, and I were right on his tail, trying to help. Eggman was driving away in some sort of large mecha Motobug. Knuckles tried going head to head with the thing and got badly injured in the process. I quickly offered to get him out of there-"

At that point we heard something walking towards the room we were in. Tails quickly put himself in front of me and got into a stance that made him look ready for anything. That's why I secretly thought of Tails as my second cool dad. (Just don't tell Knuckles!) Each eerie creak made me feel like some sort of huge robot was going to bust down the door and capture us.

I heard the doorknob slowly turning, as if whatever was trying to get in was trying to be extremely quiet, and failed horribly. The door was slowly opening, as Tails looked ready to pounce on whatever's on the other side. The door opened to reveal Knuckles. Tails and I slowly relaxed, Tails looking a bit annoyed. "Did you just forget we have a secret knock?" Tails complained.

"No!" Knuckles said. Tails just continued with his "attitude face" as I've heard Knuckles call it. "Well, maybe." Knuckles added.  
"Please tell me you got something," Tails pleaded.  
Knuckles looked ready to say something big, "Oh yeah, you should have seen it, there was this old loon over near Emerald Coast. He said he would give me half his food supply for fifty rings. Rings! I don't think he gets that the economy doesn't mean squat when all the stores are abandoned or boarded up and ya got robots chasing after you to take you to an evil dictator, just to be turned into a robot yourself."  
"So you basically just stole from him?" Tails asked.  
"Well, yeah, I guess I did." Knuckles replied. Tails' annoyed look shifted a bit towards a furious look. "Oh, come on! We're trying to raise a kid here, and you basically show him that it's okay to steal from the less fortunate?" Knuckles looked like he might have gotten even more angry. "Hey, we are the less fortunate ones now, we need this!" They are a bit like an old married couple, aren't they?

 **"LIFEFORMS DETECTED"** We heard a loud robotic voice call out from down the hall. Knuckles and Tails acted quickly, putting their argument aside to protect me. We all stood there, anticipating the robot's approach. The bot quickly revealed itself to be a simple eggpawn.  
"Now he's just getting lazy," Knuckles said with a smirk. Before Tails and Knuckles had a chance to react, some sort of scanner started up on the eggpawn. They were scanned from top to bottom.  
. **"IDENTITY CONFIRMED"** the robot said in it's same monotone voice. Suddenly, the eggpawn's chest opened, and some kind of monitor sprang out.

An ugly, big nosed, moustached face appeared on the screen. "Hello Tails, Knuckles, it's been a while, hasn't it?" An evil grin creeped onto the Doctor's face. "As you may or may not have noticed, I have grown old, and weak." This statement was made more apparent by sudden hacking and coughing from Eggman.  
"And his face has somehow grown even nastier." Knuckles whispered to Tails, getting a small snicker out of him.  
Eggman showed he was obviously angered by this but quietly continued on anyway. "I have decided to create a clone of myself as my second in command, who will take my role after my death." A man the same shape and size of Eggman then stepped into view. "I call him, Eggman Nega." This new creation of the Doctor's, it was so strange, Nega looked just like Eggman, minus a few color differences. But he gave off a strange feeling, almost a feeling of intimidation that Eggman himself didn't have.

The eggpawn suddenly sprung something else out of its chest. Speakers slowly formed on both sides of the monitor. "Now..." Eggman continued, his voice now so loud you could probably still hear him a whole building over. "I'd like to speak with the so called, 'Black Knight" that's been trying to stop my plans," The Black Knight. He was a sort of mystery hero, who quickly swept in to save someone before taking off, at what people have called the speed of sound, but I think his heroic deeds are slightly exaggerated. He's called the "Black" Knight because people have seen him, just barely, and a ton of different people say they saw black fur. "I know you're out there, and I'm warning you, I'll find you. You will be turned into part of my army. If you were smart, you'd surrender yourself now, if you do, I might spare you."

The speakers were then pulled back into the robot. "And as for you two..." Eggman started. "I think I'll be taking the child." He finished. Knuckles jumped forward, ready to attack the eggpawn. Three mechanical claws launched from the robot, I saw one grab Knuckles, while the other was struggling to grab Tails. I look forward at just the right time to realize that there's a claw heading straight for my face. The next thing I knew, everything went black.

* * *

Everything was black, it was as if nothing even existed. I tried looking for ground, or a wall. I couldn't find anything, but it didn't feel like I was floating either. I started to panic. What was happening? What was the last thing that happened? I tried to calm myself. I remember getting hit in the face with, something. I must have been knocked out! Of course, I must be dreaming! I was amazed with myself for actually figuring it out. Well, I might as well take advantage of this. I tried grasping onto a memory, anything to get me out of this space of nothingness.

I started dreaming of my dad. I had no idea what my dad looked like, or how he acted. But dreams can be weird sometimes, I somehow knew this guy was supposed to be my dad. "You can't just run out like this!" I heard a woman yell, who I think was my mother.  
"I have to, my friends are out there, and Eggman already has five Chaos Emeralds." My dad said, I had no idea what a Chaos Emerald was, but I feel like I've overheard Tails and Knuckles discussing them.  
I was so confused about what was going on, this dream was almost like a playback of a memory. "You can't just go out there and leave your wife and son to die!" My mom yelled.  
"Would you rather me stay here and let everyone die?" My father yelled back. I started uncontrollably crying, but it was not my voice that came out, it was a baby's cry, but it was obviously coming from me.

"Look what you did." My mother said in an angry voice, while trying to stay quiet. My mom walked over to comfort me, but when she did my dad rushed out the door. "Oh, come on!" Her voice started raising. I began to cry again. "Shhh... It's all okay," my mother whispers to me. She stays by my side for a while, trying to calm me down. She then gets up, "I have to go after him," she said. My mom quickly dials a number on her phone. After a few seconds, someone picks up. "Hi, this is Mighty, right?" Mighty, now there's a name I don't know. "What? No, it's not about Eggman, I just need someone to watch Silver," she responded to a question I couldn't hear. I wonder why she would lie about that. "Thanks Mighty, I really need to head out as soon as possible!"

A few minutes later, there's a knock at the door. My mom rushes over to the door. When she opens it I see a red armadillo step inside. Mighty, I'm guessing. "Thanks so much again, I really appreciate it!" My mom said quickly before rushing out.  
"Uh, bye," Mighty said, looking simply confused. He turned his attention to me. "So you're the little guy, huh?" Little guy? I take that as an insult. This guy was obviously just trying to pass time, or at least, I hope. He started talking to me, as if he was trying to have a full on conversation with an infant. "You know, they never want me to go fight with them," oh geeze, he was actually trying to have a conversation. "They're always sticking random tasks on me," he added. "They don't get that I could help them!" Dude, I'm a baby, not a psychiatrist.

For a while, nothing happened. Mighty went on about how he was important, and deserved better. Then it seemed as though everything stopped. I don't know what happened, but at that moment, it felt like my whole universe collapsed. As if I lost something that I would never be able to replace. I felt like I was going to cry again, but not this weird dream me. I felt as if there were actual tears welling up in my real eyes, as it seemed everything broke. I felt worse than any physical pain I've ever had to experience. It was like a living hell, even worse than the "living hell" Eggman created. And I didn't even know why, or how.

The darkness I saw when I first got knocked out returned, and I felt like I was in my body again. I soon started to hear laughter, laughter that sounded just like... Eggman. Right then some sort of rage exploded inside of me. I already hated Eggman for killing my parents, but this dream, or what might have been a vision, threw me over the edge. I've said before that I could take out Eggman with my bare hands, as a joke, of course, but I honestly felt like I could. It was his fault, it was all his fault. No actual family, my only friends are two guys who are probably at least twice my age, and no chance at a normal life! It's all because of him. God, I can't take it! I want to make him feel this pain!

After freaking out, I felt like I had to calm down. I couldn't kill anyone. Knuckles always said I was too soft for the threats I give. And he was right. Eggman probably has me in a cage right now, ready to turn me into one of his robot army. There was no escape, not this time. Eggman's captured all three of us. I could have already been turned into a robot. Maybe this is it, just your conscious floating in nothingness, forever. God, I hope I'll get out of here okay.

For the longest time, I just waited. There was nothing I could do. I even tried hurting myself to wake up, it just wouldn't work. I spent time trying to come to accept defeat. What else could I do? "Hey," I heard a quiet voice call out. I started looking for the source, just to see that I was still surrounded by blackness. "Hey!" The voice said again, with a bit more urgency. I decided to try and ignore it, but it just kept going. "Hey, wake up," I heard the voice call out. Wait, if I can hear someone trying to wake me up, I must not be a robot! "Come on, please wake up," I'm trying, just give me a minute! "Don't be dead kid!" I'm not! Don't leave me for the birds just yet! I started to feel something shaking me. I'm getting there! Just don't give up!

I was on the edge. I started to feel the ground beneath me, and the shaking was more apparent. I felt my eyes slowly flutter open. I tried to sit up, but my aching head made a decision for me. I turned over to see a figure, who I assume was the voice. My head,combined with my fear, made me say something I feel like an ass for just randomly saying. The first thing I said after waking up was, "Who the hell are you?"

My vision was too blurry to make out what the figure was. "Thank God," I hear him say under his breath before rushing off.  
"Wait!" I yell. I didn't see much, but I did see black fur. The pain in my head was fading, and I could actually tell what was around me. The problem was, I didn't know where I was.

* * *

I've been by Tails and Knuckles' sides my entire life, well, for as long as I can remember. That's when I decided to just lay back down and give up. How the hell am I supposed to do anything without those two? That's when I heard a sound, like someone crying. Wait, it is crying! I start looking around, trying to find the source of the sound. I look down an alley and see a young girl, a cat, maybe about my age. "Hey," I say quietly. She gasps and hides her face with her arms. "Hey, don't be scared, I won't hurt you," I say trying to comfort her.

"O-okay," she replies, sounding unsure of her judgement. She stayed silent for a short time, but I felt like I would mess something up if I tried to talk to her. "My name's Blaze," she finally said. "What's your name?"  
The suddenness of her speaking left me speechless for a moment. "I-I'm Silver," great, now I'm the one stuttering. "I'm looking for my friends right now."  
"Oh, well I..." She starts crying again. "One of Eggman's robots took my parents."  
At this point I feel like I might cry. The only Mobians I've met other than Tails or Knuckles were either crazy or just made the best out of anything. This is the first time I've ever seen anyone else cry. Knuckles always told me you just have to suck it up, but I just couldn't bring myself to say something like that. "I... I'm sorry," is all I manage to get out. I sit down next to her, hoping company would at least make her feel a little better.

We sat there, just letting ourselves deal with our feelings. God, I hope Knuckles and Tails are okay. Damn you Eggman. How does someone find joy in making other living beings cry? "Well," Blaze said suddenly, making me jump. "We both have Mobians to find, right?"  
I'm not exactly sure what she's going on about, "Yeah, I guess."  
"Then let's get out there and search together!" Blaze said, with much more hope in her voice compared to earlier. She then ran off, down the dark alley. "Are you just going to sit there, or are you coming along?" She had a huge smile on her face. My heart stopped. I didn't think seeing someone else happy would ever make me happy. "Well?" I suddenly realized that I've just been blankly staring at her.

"Yeah, sorry! You surprised me with your sudden enthusiasm!" I replied. Blaze, still seeming way overexcited to start moving, said, "Well let's put all this enthusiasm to good use!" She then ran out onto the abandoned streets, seemingly without a care in the world. I walked out of the alley to find her standing in the middle of the road. She was looking back and forth, before slowly stopping and letting her head drop down.  
. "Oh, come on." I said while approaching her. "What happened to all that excitement?"  
"Well, how are we supposed to find anyone?" She said, almost sounding as sad as earlier.I didn't know how to respond. How could we find them? I don't even know where I am!

I stood there, trying to think of something to say. What could I say? I guess I could just say, 'Well, I guess you're right! Let's just sit here and die!' but I needed to cheer her up. I just keep thinking about it. We stand in silence for a while. "Well, we could..." I trail off, suddenly wondering if I had anything to say in the first place. She looks at me, obviously hoping for me to say something.

I finally find something to say, "Look, we won't get anywhere if we don't try," Blaze didn't seem convinced yet. "We could just sit here and accept defeat, or we could try with a chance of winning," She now looked a bit more interested in what I was saying. "Like, in a race would you give up because you're in second place?"  
Blaze looked down again, "Well..."  
"What you do is keep pushing forward, you keep reaching for first place!" I finish off, trying to make my voice sound as inspirational as possible.  
Blaze let out a small chuckle, "Yeah, I think I get it," That amazing smile reappeared on her face. A few moments later, I was still just looking at her. "Hello? Mobius to Silver?" I snapped back to reality to find Blaze giving me a weird look.  
My face suddenly felt warm, "Oh! Sorry, I'm really sorry!"

Blaze smiled again, "No problem," wow, why is she so nice? "So, Silver," She said. I look at her, waiting for her to finish her though. "How about we go find Eggman and knock him out of first place?"  
I gave her a big smile, and I think I saw her face get a bit red. "Sounds like a great idea." I reply.  
"Well then let's get to it!" Blaze said enthusiastically. With that, we headed north, or maybe it was east. Whatever, it didn't matter. We were just going somewhere together.

 **HypernovaSonic- Holy hell, that was fun! Well, this is my first story so please, try to be considerate with hate. I'm just saying don't just say, "this shit sucks." I would prefer you to give constructive criticism of my story. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Bittersweet

**HypernovaSonic- I've decided to drop the whole first-person thing I just feel like I suck at writing with it. Sorry if the change is a bit too strange for some people.**

The red echidna woke up on the dank ground. It was too dark for him to see anything but the bars in front of his face. "Why do I have the feeling Eggman's behind this?" he said to himself. He pondered for a moment about what happened last. Eventually, it came to him. "Wait! Where are they?" Knuckles felt scared for a quick moment, but he then heard a voice call from the darkness.

"Robotnik mentioned something about a silver hedgehog escaping when he threw you in here. Does that ring a bell?" The voice sounded slow, and obviously weak.

The voice surprised Knuckles. He acted quickly, jumping to the back of his cell before responding. "Who's there?" Knuckles called to the strangely familiar voice.

"You're surrounded by cells holding other mobians, and I think they're a bit annoyed with you talking to yourself." The voice responded.

The echidna's eyes where adjusting to the darkness, and he could just barely make out figures in their own cells on the other side of the room. "I suppose you're right," Knuckles said, quieting himself so that only the neighboring stranger could hear him. Knuckles then thought about what the stranger had said, "So, Eggman said something about a silver hedgehog?"

"Yeah, he said the Black Knight jumped in and ran off with him. I wonder why he only saved some random hedgehog instead of the rest of us." The stranger's energy seemed to drop lower than before while explaining what happened.

Knuckles thought about it for a while, but didn't say anything. The stranger didn't say anything else to him for the rest of the night. Eventually, exhaustion took over Knuckles, and he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

The next morning, bright lights and a light buzzing woke up the prisoners. There was another loud buzz before their cells were opened. Knuckles saw this as a chance to escape, but before he got the chance to try many large robots, obviously built to have more defense than Eggman's regular robots, entered the room. They commanded the mobians to exit their cells.

After walking out, Knuckles looked to his left, where he heard the stranger last night. He was surprised to find that it wasn't a stranger at all, but Espio the Chameleon. He was relieved to see a familiar face, but it left him wondering where the other Chaotix were. Espio glanced over at him, showing a bit of surprise, but quickly returned to looking forward after a harsh command from the robots in front of them. _**"Keep your eyes forward, maggot."**_

Suddenly, a voice was heard over an intercom. "Good morning, prisoners!" Said the loud, familiar voice of a doctor on the other side. "While I would like to just leave you to rot, I have come to the conclusion that I should keep you alive for a while. Possibly as later additions to my army. So, these robots will be leading you to the cafeteria, where you will be served a special meal prepared by... uh..." the shuffling of papers was heard on the other side of the intercom. "Ah, yes! Robot E-5620a! So then, have a splendid day, or don't! I don't care." a loud sound signaled that the intercom was turned off, and the mobians were left with the robot guards.

They were then led down what must have been hundreds of hallways, and into a poorly lit cafeteria that looked like it was built easily and quickly not too long ago. The mobians were served some random slop that could have been anything. The robots commanded them exactly what to do, and where to sit. Luckily, Espio was seated right next to Knuckles. "So," Espio started, "who is this silver hedgehog?"

Knuckles then remembered what was troubling him the night before. They sat in silence for a moment before he answered. "Well, his name is Silver, believe it or not. He's, well, the son of... our friend. After he died Tails and I decided to take care of him. We were doing pretty well until recently, if that wasn't obvious." Knuckles felt like he should add more, but didn't know what to say.

"Why do you think the Black Knight saved him instead of us?" Knuckles' purple friend questioned. "Do you think the Black Knight saw something in him?"

"I don't know, really wish I did though," Knuckles and Espio just sat there for a long moment, pondering about everything, and yet nothing at all.

Suddenly there was another loud buzzing sound. "Okay, Up you creatures!" sounded Eggman's voice throughout the room. "Now that you're all fully energized, it's time for a test. Now don't worry, this isn't a test entirely of brain power, but of physical power. There will be a simple course that you and your fellow prisoners must make your way through. There is one rule, but it's also very simple, make it through the course... or die."

* * *

Knuckles later found himself in a small room alone with a metal door. He waited for a moment until a loud siren went off, and the door opened. The echidna walked forward into the larger room. He saw a seemingly bottomless pit with platforms suspended from the ceiling. "Well, this looks simple," Knuckles said to himself. He jumped from one platform to another, just like he's done a thousand times.

After clearing the pit he saw a series of moving buzz-saws in a large, open area. Knuckles quickly and carefully made his way through the saws to the other side. There was another metal door. Knuckles was a bit perplexed. "So, it was even more simple than I thought, huh?" He approached the door, and it opened automatically. He then walked to the other side.

* * *

Meanwhile, Espio was completing a nearly identical obstacle course. He came up to his own metal door, which then opened, and allowed him to enter. On the other side the chameleon was only greeted by another door. Suddenly, the door behind him shut quickly. Espio was on guard, ready for anything.

"Congratulations!" Eggman's voice sounded through the room. "But your troubles aren't exactly over yet." The Doctor's voice seemed to grow more menacing towards the end of his sentence. "You see, I believe that this course was too easy to pick off the weak."

"I do not like where this is going..." Espio said to no one in particular.

Eggman then continued, "So, the easiest conclusion I've come to, is having you pick each other off." The second door suddenly opened, revealing none other than Tails.

"Espio? Boy am I glad to see a familiar face around here!" The twin-tailed fox said with high amounts of excitement.

Espio seemed less excited. "While I agree it is, what exactly are we going to do now? Eggman does seem to want us to kill each other."

Tails thought for a long moment. "Well... don't you have some sort of strange ninja ability we could possibly use to escape?"

"I... I guess I've felt weak since I was captured," Espio said sheepishly. "I must have forgotten my own abilities."

"So you _can_ do it then?" Tails asked hopefully.

Espio took a short second to reply. "... I can try."

* * *

Meanwhile, Knuckles was dealing with a brown crocodile in an identical room. "Look, we don't have to fight. We can work together, and find a way out."

"The only way out of here is through you!" shouted the crocodile before pouncing toward Knuckles, knocking him to the ground. The brown foe then began to bite at Knuckles' face, with him narrowly dodging the crocodile's massive jaws. Knuckles felt as if his ribs would collapse under the weight of this Mobian on top of him

Suddenly, there was a loud siren that seemingly sounded through the entire prison. A robotic voice then filled the room, _**"Warning. Code orange. Prisoners have escaped. Repeat. Code orange. Prisoners have escaped..."**_ The voice then continually repeated it's last statement. The crocodile and Knuckles sat there for a moment, stunned. The red echidna was the first one to catch his bearings. He pushed the crocodile off of him to get the upper hand. He then heard a loud thump, and looked to see the crocodile knocked out against the wall.

Knuckles was shocked for a second. "I guess I don't know my own strength..." The door then opened, revealing an Eggpawn.

 _ **"Room search in progress,"**_ the robot said in it's bland tone. It then scanned the room, looking for a sign of something. _**"Escaped prisoners unidentified."**_ it then moved away as the door closed. Knuckles stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do next.

The siren suddenly stopped with another announcement by a robotic voice. _**"Prisoners neutralized. No further threat detected."** _ Knuckles suddenly felt weak. Was the failed attempt of escape making him feel weak? No, there was something more than that. There seemed to be something in the air, like some sort of gas.

Knuckles fell to one knee, feeling too weak to continue standing. He heard the intercom turn on, and a familiar, ugly voice fill his ears. "Congratulations!" the evil doctor howled with seemingly fake enthusiasm, bringing him to a cough for a few moments. His voice soon returned, slightly raspy, "you are the winner, and have earned the privilege of being kept alive! Now, please allow yourself succumb to the gases, and have a good nights rest." His last few words were said with a light, devious tone.

"You're not gonna... get away with this Eggman..." Knuckles said, forcing himself to stand up.

The doctor was heard chuckling on the other side of the intercom. "Oh, my dear friend Knuckles..." Eggman started as the echidna fell on his face. "you know I already have," the doctor finished, as Knuckles finally couldn't take it anymore, and passed out on the cold, metal floor.

* * *

A few minutes before, Tails and Espio were huddled against a wall, cloaked by one of Espio's ninja tricks. _**"... Code orange. Prisoners have escaped. Code orange. Prisoners have escaped..."**_ the robotic voice echoed itself again and again.

"So, is there a part two to this plan?" Tails asked his chameleon friend, who seemed to be in deep thought.

Espio felt like he couldn't think. "I was hoping you would think of something..."

Suddenly, the door opened and an Eggpawn walked in. Tails thought quickly before acting. "Follow me," He whispered to Espio before quickly moving behind the robot.

 _ **"Room search in progr-"**_ Eggman's robot froze in the middle of its sentence as Tails started messing with wires in the back of its head.

Espio seemed unsure of the twin-tailed fox. "Are you entirely sure you can do something?"

"Please, I've built multiple biplanes, along with transforming biplanes, and I've programed and reprogrammed more types of A.I. than you can count!" Tails said, with a boost of confidence.

The Eggpawn made small beeping sounds before taking on its new programing, _**"Prisoners neutralized. Return to original position."**_ The robot then turned around and left the room with Espio and Tails, still cloaked, following behind. The door quickly shut behind them as a secret door hidden along a wall to the right opened. The Eggpawn entered, with Tails and Espio still following close behind it.

 _ **"Prisoners neutralized. no further threat detected."**_ They heard as the door behind them closed. They seemed to be in a hallway, with multiple branching halls dotted all over the place, but what did stand out was a door at the end of the hallway, with large text above it, "Control Room."

The two quickly made their way inside to find that no one was there. "That was... too easy," Tails said questionably.

"Whatever, let's just do something before someone shows up," Espio said with urgency. He moved over to the giant control panel that took up an entire wall, and found a button with the label that simply said, "OPEN CELLS." Espio was perplexed. "You're right, too easy. Well, I'm still going for it," he pushed down on the button, and a loud buzz rang through the entire prison. A moment later, very faint ceremonious shouts were heard in the distance.

"Yep, _definitely_ too easy," Tails said with a grin on his face.

Espio gave him a serious look, "We still need to find a way out," he said.

* * *

Knuckles was already running through the halls of the prison. _He could feel it._ There were chaos emeralds here somewhere. He turned a corner and found a door labeled "Control Room" with his friends Espio and Tails exiting the room. Before he knew it, Tails had already tackled him in a hug. "Knuckles!" Tails shouted above any other sounds. "I thought I might have lost you!"

Knuckles was filled with a joy that he hadn't felt in a while. "Don't worry, I'm okay," Knuckles said calmly. A few seconds later, Knuckles was ready to jump back into action. "Guys, we have to start moving."

"Where were you heading? Did you find a way out?" Espio asked.

"Better," the echidna said with a hint of excitement. "I sensed chaos emeralds. They're somewhere in this direction," he finished, pointing down a hallway to his left.

Tails then jumped in, "Well what are we waiting for then, let's go!"

The gang then ran down hall after hall, with Knuckles leading them. "We're almost there!" Knuckles said, reassuring the others. Eventually they made it to a large door, and stepped inside.

The room seemed to be a large office, with a huge window covering one wall, showing a ruined, and abandoned city. To the left was Eggman's Eggmobile, with what appeared to be some sort of hatch to leave from. In the center of the room was a desk with three emeralds on top, with a old, weak, and yet evil figure sitting behind it. There was a long moment where none of them moved. They just stared at each other.

"You persistent little rats," Eggman began with a weak, raspy voice. "You just couldn't give up. Couldn't just let me deal with you," he didn't seem to have anything else to say.

Knuckles took a step forward, "You've lost Egghead. Now hand over the emeralds, and don't try any funny business."

Eggman seemed to slump down a bit, as if losing strength. "You... you won't get away with this..."

The red mobian looked at him with a sly grin, "Oh, my dear friend Eggman, you know we already have."

The doctor let out a small chuckle. Suddenly, he gasped and collapsed onto his desk. The mobians looked at him for a moment, shocked and unsure of what exactly happened. Tails was the first to approach him. He took a moment to feel for a pulse before looking over at the other two. "He... He's dead," Tails said with seemingly no emotion, not exactly knowing how to feel.

"Let's get out of here," Knuckles said in a similar monotone voice. He grabbed the emeralds on the desk and hit a button, opening the hatch next to the Eggmobile. He and Espio climbed on and let Tails take the controls. They blasted out of the building, leaving Doctor Ivo Robotnik's body sitting at the lone desk, as lifeless as he had made the world itself.

* * *

 **HypernovaSonic- Well, that's chapter two. For some reason this took way longer to write than chapter one, despite being a few hundred characters shorter. I wanted to make it a bit longer, but I feel like that would have screwed up the mood a bit.**


	3. Hooligans with New Intentions

What was just hours earlier, a young hedgehog walked alongside his new cat friend. "So... Where are we going?" she asked.

"Well, there's one building over there that seems to be larger than everything else, maybe it's something important," the silver mobian replied.

Blaze stopped, looking concerned, "But you don't _know_ what's over there."

Silver just kept walking, "Yeah, but we won't know unless we go over there," he responded. Blaze then continued to follow him. They simply walked through the city for what must have been an hour, with most of the scenery looking exactly the same. "Let's go this way," Silver said, turning down an alleyway.

They walked for a few moments, until they heard a voice. "Who goes there?" the voice shouted. The children stood there, not knowing how to respond. Suddenly, a door opened on the building to the left and a purple weasel approached from the darkness of the building. He looked down the alley, and let out a small gasp after seeing the two.

"Hey, it's just a few kids!" the weasel shouted into the building. A large polar bear then walked out, with a green duck following behind him. "So, who are ya?" he asked, seemingly suspicious of their intentions.

Silver was too shocked to respond for a moment, "W-we're just looking for some people."

"Yeah, but _who_ are ya?" the weasel asked, "Like, do ya have attachments ta anybody important?"

Silver thought quickly, "Well, I know Knuckles the Echidna, if that means anything..." He trailed off at the end, wondering what the weasel's questions were about.

The trio looked at each other, seemingly surprised by the mention of the name. "'Kay, why don't ya two come inside," the purple weasel said, as he walked back into the building. The green duck then followed behind him. The polar bear motioned for them to follow before going along with the others.

Blaze and Silver hesitantly walked into the building, where the door was closed behind them. "So, I feel like we got a lot to talk about," the weasel started. "The name's Fang, what's yours?"

Before Silver got the chance to speak, the duck spoke up, "His name's Nack, he just thinks 'Fang' sounds cooler. And that's Bark," he said referring to the polar bear.

"Shut up, _**Bean**_ ," Nack retorted.

"My name's Silver," the hedgehog said, "and this is Blaze," he finished, referring to the cat who seemed to be trying to hide herself using her will alone.

Nack walked closer to Silver before asking a question, "So, how do you know this echidna?" the weasel asked.

Silver seemed hesitant to start the story, that always felt too long whenever he told it. "Well... My father died when I was young, so Knuckles and Tails decided to take care of me. I... guess I was part of the reason they weren't there to stop Eggman from taking over. Most of what I remember in my life just sort of blends together because most of it is the same.

"That helps me remember some things though, considering there's a lot less of it to remember. Like how I remember one time where there was this red wolf who raced Tails, saying that he would take our supplies if he won. Obviously, Tails won, but we didn't take any of his things. Tails said it wouldn't be the right thing to do.

"Then there was another time when I saw Knuckles talking to this white bat. He seemed upset about something, and she looked anxious to get out of there. As far as I know they knew each other, but I never knew her, or saw her after that. And this other time-"

"Ey, I didn't ask fer a life story," Nack interrupted.

Silver pulled back, embarrassed. "Uh... sorry."

"Whatever kid," the weasel said. "So anyway, I'd like to meet up with your echidna friend. Ya have any idea where he could be?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure he and Tails were kidnapped by Eggman."

 _"DOCTOR ROBOTNIK!?"_ Nack and Bean asked, surprised.

Nack then became upset, "Oh yeah, because you couldn't have just told us that first!" he said angrily. "I mean, what do you think we can do against Robotnik's forces?"

Silver wasn't sure how to respond. They all stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do next. Nack then spoke up, "Ya know what? Forget it. What else are we gonna do, wait for Robotnik to take us away too? I say, we ride down to the prison, and free some mobians!"

There was another short moment of silence. "Sure, let's do it!" Silver soon said.

"Whatever, we don't seem to have a choice anyway," Bean said, stepping forward along with Bark. Blaze simply stepped forward with a light smile.

Nack looked at everyone with a small grin, "Well, let's get movin' then!"

* * *

All five of them crowded onto Nack's vehicle, the Marvelous Queen, and sped through the city.

"I told you fitting five people on this thing was a bad idea." Bean complained.

Nack seemed to grow angry, "Shut up! It's workin' fine."

The group rode in silence for a short time, the large prison getting closer by the second. Silver looked around, a bit confused. "I expected Eggman to have a ton of robots out here." he said curiously.

"Nah, the doctor does a sweep of this section of the city three times a week. You're lucky you weren't out on the streets yesterday," Nack responded.

Another short time later, Nack stopped the vehicle and hopped off. "Let's continue on foot from here. We want to make a quiet entrance," he said.

The five mobians made their way to the prison on foot. As they approached, Silver realized that they were looking at the back of the building. "We can't just walk in the front door, so we need to find another way in back here," Nack explained to the others.

Silver then noticed something that he didn't pay attention to before. There was a small leather bag that Nack was carrying on his shoulder. "What's in the bag?" he asked.

"Why do ya need to know?" the weasel asked, lashing out at Silver.

Silver jumped back, scared. "I-I don- I just- I mean..." he trailed off, not sure what to say.

Nack sighed, "Ya know, whatever, it won't do any harm showin' ya," he then produced a purple gem from the bag. "It's a chaos emerald, ya happen to know what those are?"

"Well, not exactl-"

OHMYGOSH They're real!?" Blaze interrupted.

Nack chuckled, "Looks like she knows," he said. He then spoke directly to silver, "Well, there's seven of them. They hold immense power, which works amazingly alone, but when all of them are together, the power is nearly limitless."

"Cool!" Silver said. He then became curious, "Why don't we just use the emerald to break in?" he asked.

"That's the thing, not everyone can use the power of the emeralds, and as far as I know none of us can," Nack answered.

Suddenly, a large, gray robot with a glowing red eye had turned the corner to the right and was quickly making its way toward them. _**"HALT, IN THE NAME OF DOCTOR ROBOTNIK!"**_ it shouted.

Before he knew what he was doing, Silver snatched the emerald from Nack and shouted a phrase that he had never heard before, and yet was somehow familiar, _"CHAOS CONTROL!"_

* * *

Silver was once again in the black void that haunted him once before. It was once again hard to remember what had happened last, but he did remember what he did last time he was here. The hedgehog attempted to look through his subconscious for another scrap of something interesting.

The mobian soon found himself in a dimly lit metallic room. He seemed to be a bit older than last time. The hedgehog seemed to be sitting in the corner of a cell, with his face being wet with tears. He noticed a bright light coming from a screen outside of his cell. He then got to his hands and knees and crawled towards the bars of the cell to get a better look.

A light beep suddenly rang through the room, and the voice of an angry doctor filled the room, "Entry #35, I am making little progress. There are at least three of those little rats still out there and I cannot let them stop my plans!" Sliver flinched as Eggman shouted. "I have not made any progress with the young hedgehog. He has a power that I do not yet understand, but I am determined to tap into it."

Silver was once again confused. _"Power? What power?"_ he thought to himself.

Eggman then continued, "I will continue my test, something has to get this kid to snap." There was another light beep, signifying the doctor turning off some sort of microphone. He then pressed a button on the control panel in front of him, bringing down a glass wall in front of the bars of Silver's cell, closing him in.

Silver's breath began to quicken, not sure what the doctor was planning. Eggman walked over to the cell, looking down at the small hedgehog. Suddenly, small holes opened on the walls of the cell, pouring out small streams of water. "Come on hedgehog," the evil man said through the glass. "Save yourself. Use your powers to save yourself."

The hedgehog only began to breath faster, and he began to cry again. The cell was filling slowly, but water already completely covered the ground. He looked up to the doctor, to see him slowly changing. Eggman's mustache was turning gray, and his clothes began to slowly change. His mouth then curled up into an evil smile.

Silver looked around to see the cell seemingly shrinking, no, he was growing. He soon grew into his regular body. Now no longer an infant, the hedgehog stood up as the water reached his ankles. He looked back to where Eggman was standing to find, not the doctor, but a strikingly similar replacement. Robotnik's creation, Eggman Nega was standing above him, looking down with an evil grin. Silver felt the water up to his knees, and rising faster. "Come on," The gray mustached madman started, "Come on, Silver! LET ME SEE YOUR POWER!"

Silver closed his eyes and began to scream. He had lost himself, he couldn't remember if this was real or not. He needed to get out. He reopened his eyes and focused his attention on the glass wall in front of him. The glass began to shake, but wouldn't move any farther. The hedgehog closed his eyes again and put his mind entirely on the glass. His head began to hurt, but he suddenly heard the glass shatter.

The darkness returned when Silver opened his eyes. _"It wasn't real..."_ Silver thought. His head still felt lightly fuzzy, but didn't hurt like before. The hedgehog was unsure of how much of the dream had actually happened. He once again couldn't wake himself up, he was trapped in the black void again, for god knows how long. While he expected to wait a long time, he was surprised to soon feel his eyes open slowly.

He looked around slowly to find himself being carried over Bark's shoulder through a metallic hallway. The hedgehog saw Bean and Blaze walking behind them. "Oh hey! The kid's awake," Bean said to the others.

"Finally. Ya missed all the action, kid," Nack said, not turning to talk directly to him. "Put 'im down Bark, the kid can walk by himself," the polar bear grasped Silver and lowered him to his feet. Sliver wobbled around before catching his balance. "Or maybe not," the weasel said, letting out a small chuckle.

"What... happened?" the silver mobian asked.

They turned a corner, and Nack looked down at Silver, "Well, after ya got us in here we were able to get a surprise attack on Robotnik's bots. They were surprisingly easy to take out, despite how many of them were coming at us," Nack answered. "I swear... that idiot has given up on makin' good robots," he shook his head and turned his attention forward. "Hey... Silver?" he asked slowly.

"What?" Silver responded simply.

Nack turned his attention back to Silver, even stopping and kneeling down to look him in the eyes, with everyone else stopping behind them. "Do ya know how ya used the emerald?" the weasel asked.

"N-no. No I don't, sorry," Silver responded.

Nack stood back up and they all continued walking. "Whatever," he said slowly, "We might find out later."

* * *

They walked down multiple halls for some time. Silver learned that they didn't find anybody familiar in the prison, but was told they met others that mentioned seeing a red echidna. Nack was leading the group, but didn't seem to know where they were going. Blaze decided to stay close to Silver, still seemingly unsure of the others.

The hedgehog started to become anxious as they turned the fourth corner in the past minute. "Where are we going!?" he blurted out after a while.

"Calm down kid!" Nack said quickly. "Unless ya can get us out of here with that emerald trick ya used to get us in, we're gonna be walkin'."

Silver didn't know how to respond, so he just held his head down and kept walking.

* * *

They eventually found their way into a large main hall. There was an eggpawn behind a desk on one side of the room, seemingly sorting through papers. The robot looked up at the group and began to speak, _**"Hello! Do you have an appointment with Doctor Robotnik?"**_ The five mobians stood there stunned for a moment.

Bean was the first to react. "Uh... Yeah," he started, walking up to the desk. "Tell the doc that he's got five angry mobians who want to talk to him."

 _ **"Okay! I'll make sur-"**_ the robot then began to produce buzzing and clicking sounds before returning to its original state. _**"I'm sorry, but I have just received information that the doctor has passed away. Would you like me to make an appointment with his second in command?"**_

They all looked at each other, once again stunned. "No, thanks," Bean said slowly. The mobians made their way through the doors of the building to surprisingly find no guards there to stop them. As they stepped out, Silver looked up to the sky to see a strange, semi-circle object shoot across the sky, with three figures sitting in it.

"Well..." Nack started slowly. "I think that ends our little adventure together."

"WHAT?!" Blaze and Silver asked simultaneously.

"Look, we did our job," Nack retorted. "We freed prisoners, and apparently Robotnik's dead. as far as I'm concerned, there's no fight anymore."

Blaze then spoke up, "But what about his second in command?"

Nack was quick with a response, "And who would that be? Metal Sonic? I think we're fine," Nack turned and began to walk away.

"I know who it is!" Silver said quickly.

Nack stopped and turned around, "What are ya talkin' about, kid?"

"His second in command! It's a clone!" Silver responded.

The weasel walked back to silver and lowered himself down to the hedgehog's level. "A clone?" he asked.

"Yeah, he calls it Eggman Nega," Silver responded.

Nack let out a light sigh, "So we're not done here?"

"I guess not," the hedgehog said simply.

Nack stood back up quickly, "Well, let's get back to the Marvelous Queen then. We got some work to do."

The gang had to take a long walk around the prison after Silver discovered that he couldn't seem to use the chaos emerald again. "So Nack," Silver began, "I've told you about me, how about you tell me about you?"

"Let's just say I don't exactly have a clean slate," Nack said.

Nack's answer caused Silver to ask another question, "Explain, please?"

Nack thought about what to say for a moment as they turned a corner, "Well, us three used to take up jobs for Robotnik, but the guy turned against everyone when he took over. So I guess that's why I didn't just turn you into Robotnik," Nack said, glancing at Silver with a slight grin. Silver flinched at the end of the weasel's statement, once again unsure of the trio surrounding him and Blaze.

They simply continued to walk, each wondering how large the prison actually was. The mobians soon turned another corner and began to move quickly in the direction of Nack's vehicle.

"Robotnik's main base is set on top of what used to be Emerald Hill," Nack began as they climbed onto the Marvelous Queen. "It's pretty far out, probably gonna take two an' a half days, maybe three."

"Well that sucks," Bean said simply.

"We have to get across a small body of water to get there too."

"We'll deal with it when we get there, let's just go."

Without saying a word, Nack started his vehicle and sped through the city once again.

* * *

Silver soon realized that spending only a few hours with new people brought him to the same place he was with with the people he already knew. They said nothing to each other, because there wasn't much to say.

The five returned to the hideout to collect supplies. They hopped off the vehicle and walked towards the building, but as they approached they heard the distinct sound of someone moving on the inside. They then slowed to a crawl while still approaching the building. Silver noticed the purple weasel slip his hand into the bag still on his shoulder.

The hedgehog began to feel a familiar presence, he soon realized it was that of a chaos emerald. Before he realized what was happening, Nack threw the door open and rushed inside. They heard a deep voice let out a short scream and sped in to find Nack aiming a handgun at a black hedgehog who was holding his hand behind his back.

"The hell ya doin' here hedgehog?" Nack asked.

The hedgehog didn't know what to say, "I... uh..."

"What'cha got there?" Nack interrupted, referring to his hidden hand. The black mobian brought out a red chaos emerald.

Silver suddenly recognized the stranger standing in front of them. "Hey! You saved me!" he shouted.

Before they knew what was happening, the black hedgehog teleported away with a now familiar, simple phrase, "Chaos control!"

"Uh... what the heck was that?" Blaze asked.

"We'll talk about it later," Nack responded. "Let's just get stuff and go." The mobians got things together, hopped back onto the Marvelous Queen, and once again sped off through the city, this time moving away from the prison


	4. Emerald Warnings

Knuckles awoke after a short rest what must have been about an hour after his escape from Dr. Eggman. Or at least that's what he remembered last, but he found himself on the island he had spent most of his life. He was standing in front of the master emerald that he had devoted his life to guarding.

This wasn't right, why was he here? He looked up to see his friend Tails was flying towards him with an urgent look on his face, seemingly younger than last time he saw him. The fox landed and ran a short distance towards the echidna. "Knuckles we need help!" Tails said, sounding younger too.

"Where's... Espio?" Knuckles asked, confused.

The two-tailed mobian paused, trying to understand the question. "Probably with the rest of the Chaotix," he answered slowly. "Anyway," the fox started quickly, "Eggman kidnapped Silver and we need to save him!"

"Weren't we already looking for Silver?" the echidna asked.

Tails simply stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "You know what, whatever, let's go," he said, and took off flying a moment later. Knuckles simply followed his friend, dumbfounded.

* * *

The two mobians later found themselves in Green Hill. Where Knuckles spotted Shadow and... someone else that was for some reason hard to see, following a familiar giant motobug with Eggman in the cockpit at the head. Knuckles was once again confused. Eggman was dead, he saw him die.

"What's... Eggman doing here?" Knuckles asked.

Tails looked at him with the same confused face, "What do you mean? He kidnapped Silver!"

The echidna looked back to the motobug to find silver, who looked like an infant, trapped in the cockpit with Eggman. "Silver!" Knuckles shouted before rushing towards the robot.

"Knuckles wait!" Tails warned. As Knuckles rushed towards the motobug, things began to seemingly change, but he didn't care, he needed to save Sliver. The robot began to shift and twist, turning into another familiar giant.

Large, metallic walls began to surround them as the motobug transformed into a large bot similar to his past robot Big Arm, only much bigger. Silver seemed to become a few months older during the transformation. The whole situation suddenly seemed much more familiar to him. He looked to his right to see Tails, also seemingly older, standing next to him.

Eggman had kidnapped Silver eight months ago, and Tails and Knuckles have finally tracked him down. He once again wondered why he was here, but those thoughts quickly subsided as he saw the giant fist of the doctor's robot hurtle towards him. The echidna quickly jumped back, barely dodging the metal fist. He jumped up and ran across the thing's arm, determined to destroy the glass encasing Eggman. Knuckles leaped into the air and dove towards the glass dome, straight for the doctor.

The Mobian slammed against the dome and had the air knocked out of him, but it didn't break. He held his eyes closed while gasping for air, and when he opened them things were once again different. There was a glass box beneath him, with Eggman Nega holding a ten year old Silver, fast asleep in his arms. The doctor was smiling at Knuckles as the glass room began to slowly fill with water. Nega began to laugh as the water reached his ankles, and the red echidna began rapidly punching the glass.

The glass wasn't going to break, but Knuckles kept attacking the impenetrable case. He couldn't feel his hands, or whatever pain he was inflicting on them. Tears began to stream from his eyes as he saw the water reach the doctor's waist, Silver still peacefully asleep in his arms. As the water reached Silver's back he began to shiver. He seemed to slowly grow angry as his torso became submerged. The glass began shaking beneath Knuckles' hands, and Nega seemed to become more excited.

Knuckles tried to stand, but was quickly thrown off balance as the glass below him began shaking more violently. The echidna caught his balance, but only before the glass case was shattered beneath him. As Knuckles fell, time seemingly began to slow down. "Knuckles... Emerald Hill... three days," the familiar voice rang in the red mobian's ears, but it seemed to come from nowhere. He looked down just as things went back to normal, and everything went black just before he hit the ground.

* * *

Knuckles sprung awake, feeling afraid and unsure after his dream. He looked up to see Espio above him. "Hey..." the echidna started lazily. "Where are we?" he asked.

"We're still in the city," Espio said. "You were making weird sounds in your sleep. Tails was concerned and wanted me to see if you were okay."

Knuckles slowly sat up, his back suddenly aching. He could very vividly remember his dream. "Uh... yeah, sorry about that. It was just a weird nightmare." He looked around to see that they were on the top of a building, but he couldn't tell exactly where they were. He also spotted Tails sitting on the other side of the rooftop.

"What was this nightmare?" Espio asked. The echidna explained his dream to his friend, trying his best to make sense of it. After he finished his story, Espio seemed to be thinking through the new information. "Three days, huh?" Espio asked. "It may be a stretch, but I say we head to Emerald Hill." He recommended.

Tails had recently walked over to the two, silently listening to their conversation. He then spoke up, "I don't exactly know why, but I agree."

"Really?" Knuckles began, "It's just a dream."

"I don't know," Tails started, "It seems way too specific. And you can't say that we haven't seen anything weirder."

Knuckles sighed. "Fine, we don't seem to have any other sort of lead, so let's head off to Emerald Hill," he said.

The three mobians began to walk over to the Eggmobile when Knuckles spotted something soaring through the sky above them. The figure suddenly shifted direction and the echidna realized it was moving towards them. "Look out!" he shouted before pulling his friends out of the way.

A blue robot with a familiar appearance landed in front of them. The three heroes were ready for a fight, but Metal Sonic then backed up and magnetically attached himself to the Eggmobile. He then quickly took off into the sky, carrying the vehicle with him. "Well that was... unexpected," Knuckles said after a short moment.

"So, now what?" Espio asked.

Tails was the first to respond, "What else? We walk," he said.

* * *

A short time later, the three mobians were creeping down a dark alleyway, avoiding the eyesight of Eggman's robots that were scanning the city. As they approached the end of the alley, Knuckles spoke up quietly, "There's three of us, why don't we go out there and break some bots?" he asked.

"We don't know how powerful these things are, and we're not taking any chances," the yellow fox responded.

"Whatever, that thing looks like it's out of Eggman's E-100 series, and I've felt like punching something ever since Metal flew away without a fight." Knuckles then ran out into the street, towards a robot with it's back to him.

"Knuckles wait!" Tails shouted. But it was too late, the echidna jumped into the air and punched the robot square in the face. Knuckles' punch had no effect on the robot. The thing then raised its arm and smashed it into the red mobian's head, throwing him into the building across the street from where Espio and Tails were still hiding, smashing through the wall. A blue gem, a chaos emerald, was left where he was standing before the impact.

The robot immediately scooped up the blue gem, putting it in a small compartment inside its chest. It then unexpectedly flew into the air, disappearing in seconds. Tails ran over to Knuckles, hastily throwing away pieces of the broken wall to reach his friend. The fox quickly found Knuckles unconscious and yanked him out of the rubble.

"Come on Knuckles, get up!" Tails said in a panicked voice. He looked up to see another robot much like the one who stole the emerald slowly approaching them. "Oh no... Espio, let's go, hurry," he said quickly, moving into the ruined building while carrying Knuckles on his back.

They quickly made their way through the building with the robot slowly closing in behind them. The mobians eventually made it to the roof, where Tails quickly ran off, throwing himself over to the next building with Espio following behind him. The fox looked back to see the robot appear on the roof, still moving towards them. He picked up the pace, not daring to waste time looking back again.

Tails suddenly felt Knuckles' weight be lifted from his back. He skidded to a stop and turned around around to see Espio trying to save Knuckles from the same robot that was chasing them. The fox was about to run over to the thing when a sudden bright light momentarily blinded him. As his eyesight slowly readjusted, he heard a familiar phrase shouted by a similarly familiar voice, "CHAOS SPEAR!" The sound of tearing metal sounded across the rooftop.

As Tails' eyes focused moments later, he looked towards the now mangled robot to see a black hedgehog standing over it with the blue emerald in his left hand. "Shadow!" Tails shouted excitedly.

"Tails," he responded simply.

The yellow fox was uncontrollably excited, "I can't believe you're still alive!"

"You underestimate me, fox," Shadow said with a light smirk.

"Well where have you been?" Tails asked

"I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of a certain 'Black Knight' over the past few years."

Suddenly, Espio jumped in, "Wait, that was you?" he asked. Shadow stared at him, unsure of how to answer the obvious question. "You left us for dead and ran away with Silver."

"I couldn't save you all on my own," the hedgehog answered simply. "Silver's special, I needed him to stay safe."

"Huh, what's going on?" Knuckles asked, waking in a daze.

"Oh! Thank goodness you're okay!" Tails said, diving down and hugging his friend.

"Whoa, Tails! It's cool, I'm fine," the echidna said. He slowly looked around, getting an idea of his surroundings. "... Shadow? What are you doing here?"

"Stopping that robot from taking the emerald," Shadow answered, looking down at the scrap metal. "I guess saving you was just a bonus."

Tails chuckled lightly, "Please, 'Black Knight,' you probably didn't even know this robot had the emerald."

"Fine, you got me," the hedgehog said with a sigh. "I couldn't just stand idly as one of those damned things attacked you." He then looked around, noticing that there were more emeralds than the two in his hands. "So, we have three emeralds then?" he asked.

"What?" Tails asked. "No, you have one, and we have ...three." He looked around noticing Espio holding an emerald, and Shadow holding two. "But the third one... was in the Eggmobile!" the fox then turned away, looking upset and defeated.

"Perfect," Shadow started, "Now Nega could possibly have more emeralds than us."

"Hey!" Knuckles said, "Sliver might have gotten his hands on one."

"You know where Silver is?" the black mobian asked.

"Well... I uh, I had a dream where we were told to go to Emerald Hill so-"

"Just as I suspected," Shadow interrupted. "You're crazy. I'll be taking that third emerald off your hands now. Thanks for the help, but I'll be stopping Nega myself."

"No! You gotta trust us!" Knuckles said desperately.

"Why should I?" the hedgehog asked. "You just told me you were going to Emerald Hill based of a dream you had."

"Well, you were the one saying that Silver is apparently 'special,'" Espio said, suddenly joining the conversation. "Why would you say that?"

Shadow was quiet for a moment, seemingly unsure of how to start. "Silver... has powers. Well, most of us do have powers, but what Silver can do is truly amazing. He is possibly more powerful than any of us."

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked. "What can he do?"

"Silver's powers can be partially identified as telekinesis, although it does extend much farther past just that." Shadow answered. "I assume he may have been able to contact you through a dream somehow, and it seems to be the only lead any of us have."

"How do you know all this?" Tails questioned.

"I've been stealing information from Eggman," the hedgehog answered. "The doctor seemed to be very interested in using Silver's powers for his own needs."

There was a short pause where everyone seemed unsure of what else to say. "So... You can take us to Emerald Hill then?" Knuckles asked Shadow.

"My abilities can't take us all the way there, even with three emeralds," Shadow admitted. "I can definitely get us closer though."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Knuckles asked. "Let's get going!"

Espio then walked over to the hedgehog, handing him the third emerald. "Okay, we're ready then?" the hedgehog asked. Everybody simply nodded, showing their approval. "Well, let's go then. _CHAOS CONTROL!"_

The four mobians arrived on Westside Island in an instant. They were standing in Hill Top, with large mountains rising above them and random tunnels crossing through those mountains. "Okay, so I'm the one that knows this place the best," Tails told the group. "That means I'll be taking the lead on our way to Emerald Hill."

"Yes sir, Captain Prower," Knuckles replied sarcastically.

"Whatever," Tails said. "Let's just get moving before some other robot starts chasing us."

Little did the mobians know, a metallic hedgehog was watching them from the distance. "Metal, do you have sight on the echidna or the fox?" asked the voice of an evil doctor from inside the robot.

"I confirm sights on both the echidna and the fox sir, along with a purple chameleon and a black hedgehog," answered Metal Sonic. "Should I eliminate the targets sir?"

"No, keep them alive," the doctor responded. "Return to base, Metal. I feel like having a little fun with our new guests," he said in a frighteningly joyous way. Metal Sonic then lifted off the ground and flew away, with his glowing red eyes still trained on the four mobians.

* * *

The group was later walking through a dark cavern with the emeralds' power giving off light, showing the way forward. Tails was at the front of the group, lightly mumbling to himself. "Uh, Tails?" Knuckles spoke up. "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Of course I do!" the fox said. "I just... need to find a certain path first."

Shadow, who was in the back holding on to the emeralds, then angrily marched to the front. "So you don't know where we are now then?" he asked, aggressively leaning in on Tails.

"H-hey, cool down Shadow!" Tails said, backing away from the hedgehog with a frightened look on his face.

"Are you kidding me!?" Shadow seemed to snap, moving away from the group and raising his voice. "Nega may have four emeralds, hell, he may have even unlocked Silver's powers!"

There was a strange pause as tension seemed to continue building. "And... Silver might be in trouble," Knuckles said.

"Oh, yes, of course," Shadow said simply.

"You never cared, did you?" Tails asked.

Shadow began to walk away, talking to the others with his back to them. "Of course not!" he said. "My job is to defeat Eggman, or Nega now. It doesn't matter what happens to some kid, I just couldn't let Eggman use Silver's powers."

"Buy you were the Black Knight!" Tails said, now following Shadow. "you've been saving people all the time!"

"That was just me trying to keep Eggman's army from growing," the hedgehog answered. "I couldn't care less for the mobians I've saved!"

"Guys!" Knuckles shouted from the darkness.

"What could you possibly have to say, you damned echidna?!" Shadow angrily shouted back. "What minor inconvenience could you possibly be bothered by right now?!"

Knuckles was silent for a moment. "Uh... Espio's gone," he responded.

Tails gave Shadow one last quick glance before snatching one of the emeralds and moving over to Knuckles. "Do you think he accidentally went down the wrong path?" the fox asked.

"I don't know," Knuckles answered. "I just hope nothing bad happened."

"We should probably go back and try to find him," Tails suggested.

"What about Shadow?" the echidna asked.

Tails looked back in the direction he had come from to find nothing there. "He seems to have already left," he said. "Let's just get moving."

"Got it. No use in just standing here," Knuckles said, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

* * *

Shadow was walking on his own through the dark caves. "I should probably just teleport out of here," he said to himself. Suddenly, a loud scream rang through the darkness. "What the..." The scream rang out again, making the hedgehog slightly frightened, even if he wouldn't admit it. He began to move in the direction he believed the screams were coming from, almost positive that he would never make his way back to his current path.

As he moved, the scream became louder. He was sure he would find the source soon, but the screams were suddenly cut off. He was confused, but ready to turn around and continue on his own path until another scream came from the opposite direction. He began to follow it, but before he knew it, the sound once again switched direction.

"Where are you?!" Shadow shouted through the caves. He felt like he was losing it, rapidly looking around for the source of the sounds. It sounded like a girl, but despite that, it was undefinable. The hedgehog found himself running away from the sound, now afraid of what the source could be.

Suddenly, Shadow saw sunlight. He began moving faster, desperate to get out of the cave. The hedgehog was breathing heavily as he exited the cavern, trying to get a hold of himself. After calming himself, he looked to the horizon to see the sun setting. It was a truly wonderful sight to see after what happened in the cave. He eventually came to the realization that he only had one emerald. "No!" Shadow shouted at no one in particular. "No, no, NO! This can't be happening!"

The black mobian began pacing around the entrance of the cave, debating on whether or not to enter the cave again. As he was thinking, he heard a noise, like something flying through the air. The hedgehog began to turn around, but before he could, something large collided with the side of his head, knocking him out cold.


	5. Emerald Hills and Rough Waters

Meanwhile, five mobians were sitting around the Marvelous Queen with the city behind them, and a body of water in front of them. "This isn't gonna be fun to cross," Bean said, stating the obvious.

"Wow, really?" Nack asked sarcastically. "It's obviously not gonna be fun. let's just hope nothin' bad happens while we cross."

Bark was sitting on the Marvelous Queen, Nack and Bean were on one side of the vehicle, and Silver and Blaze were on the other side, as Blaze had suggested. "Why are you so scared of these guys?" Silver asked her quietly.

"Why do _you_ trust them?" Blaze answered with another question.

"You think they would have done something by now, if their intentions weren't what they seem," the hedgehog responded.

"I still don't trust them," Blaze said.

"Hey Silver, Blaze!" Nack suddenly called to them. "We're gonna set up a camp for tonight. We'll cross to Westside Island tomorrow." The mobians set up camp, had a small meal, and then went to sleep for a hopefully peaceful night.

* * *

Silver was awoken by a scream in the middle of the night. He was surprised when Nack ran up to him, grabbing hold of him by the shoulders. "What did ya do kid?!" Nack was yelling at him, seemingly more scared than angry.

"W-what are you talking about?!" Silver asked as the weasel began shaking him.

"My dreams kid!" Nack said, suddenly releasing him. "What were ya doin' in my dreams?!"

"What are you talking about Nack?!" Bean shouted at the purple mobian.

Nack turned quickly towards the green bird, "The kid was in my dreams!" he said, looking around with wild eyes. "He was sayin' things, weird things..." he trailed off, still glancing around wildly.

"It was just a dream, Nack," Blaze said, suddenly jumping in.

"No!" Nack seemed to be losing it. "Nononono... H-he was... relaying specifics about my life to me. He was tellin' me my own memories!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Silver said simply.

"Oh, but ya do," Nack said, getting in Silver's face again. "I know ya do, and ya have a reason, don't ya? What do ya need to know, huh? What's your point in drivin' me crazy?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Silver said, restating his previous statement.

"Really? Then tell me one thing, why do I want to find out where Knuckles is?" Nack asked.

Bean and Bark looked uneasy after Nack's statement, and while it still confused him, Silver understood why. "...You have a score to settle," Silver said, much to the surprise of the four other mobians. "You just completed a mission for someone who had their hands on a Master Emerald shard, which was going to be your reward, but Knuckles swiped it away from your employer. You've been holding a grudge ever since."

Nack seemed to be shaking where he stood. "No... nah, no... I-it's not, it's not possible," he was stumbling over his words as his breath began to quicken. "I-i'm gettin' out of here!" he shouted. Nack began to sprint towards the Marvelous Queen, desperate to get away.

"H-hey! Wait for us!" Bean called to Nack as he and Bark ran behind the weasel. The three mobians jumped on Nack's vehicle and sped off in seconds, leaving Silver and Blaze alone.

"How did you do that?" Blaze asked, also seemingly scared.

"I don't exactly know," Silver answered. "I didn't even know what Nack was talking about until he brought up Knuckles."

"Well it's still super weird," Blaze said.

"Are you gonna run away too?" Silver asked.

Blaze sighed, "No, I kinda need you." The statement made Silver upset, believing Blaze was only sticking with him because she had to. "But," the cat started, "I actually think I can trust you, unlike those three losers."

Sliver began to laugh lightly, "Thanks Blaze," he said simply. "We still have a problem though."

"What's that?" Blaze asked.

Silver looked out over the water, "We still have to cross that," he said, pointing towards the water.

Blaze looked suddenly ecstatic. "I got it!" She ran away for a short moment, coming back with Nack's purple chaos emerald. "They left this behind when they ran away!"

Silver jumped up with an excited look on his face. "Yes! We still have a chance!" He then snatched the emerald from the purple cat, shouting the same, now highly recognizable phrase, _**"CHAOS CONTROL!"**_

* * *

Despite Silver's confidence that he wouldn't pass out again, that's exactly what happened. Sliver was once again in the darkness of his own mind. He didn't bother trying to find a memory this time. He just laid back, or at least attempted to in the nothingness.

A few minutes later, he was awoken by Blaze. "Silver! Get up, come on!" he heard the cat shouting as he woke up.

"Blaze, calm down, I'm okay," the hedgehog said, reassuring his friend. He stood up and looked around to see rolling hills of dead grass, and a large tower in the distance. "This must be Emerald Hill, right?" he asked Blaze.

"Well that looks like the huge base of an evil doctor, so I'd say yes," She replied.

"Let's start moving then!" Silver said, quickly moving toward the base, with Blaze following shortly behind. Just seconds after they started moving, a loud siren rang out from the fortress. Before the mobians knew what had happened, a large army of robots was making their way toward the two. Silver was familiar with the robots, being an army of Motobugs and Buzz Bombers.

Blaze seemed terrified, "Silver, get us out of here!" she shouted.

"No," he replied simply.

"What do you mean no?!" Blaze asked, once again shouting.

"We're not running. We're going through them," the hedgehog answered.

His cat friend was hesitant, but soon complied, "O-okay, I trust you," she said.

"Just follow me," Silver said with a smirk before running toward the robots. "Duck!" he shouted before quickly sliding below a low-flying Buzz Bomber, glancing behind for a short moment to see Blaze still right behind him. "Jump! Left!" Silver was wildly yelling commands while barely dodging the bots himself.

The hedgehog saw a large wall of Motobugs in the back of the pack. He was too focused on the wall to see the Buzz Bomber flying for him. "Watch out!" Blaze screamed, pushing him out of the way. Much to the cat girl's surprise the robot didn't just crash into her, but picked her up with its pincers and began to carry her away. _"SILVER!"_ she began shouting the hedgehog's name, desperate for help.

"Blaze!" Silver shouted for the cat as she was carried towards Nega's base. He looked back at the approaching wall of robots, now determined to smash through. Holding the purple emerald close, he ran toward the wall. The hedgehog then shouted another impossibly familiar phrase, **_"CHAOS BLAST!"_** All of the robots around him were obliterated instantly. He kept running, the fortress in front of him looking absurdly closer than before.

The hedgehog would be at Nega's front door in less than a minute. He was excited. He felt like he should have been scared, but there was no fear in him, only determination. Before he reached the door, something slammed against him, throwing him into the wall next to the door. He fell to the ground and quickly looked up to see a metallic figure standing over him.

The figure was recognized as Metal Sonic, who Silver remembered from a minor run-in with the metallic beast three years ago. He felt fear seeing the robot now. The fear had paralyzed him, keeping him rooted to the spot.

Metal then began to speak, but not to Silver. "What do you recommend for my next course of action master?" the robot asked.

"Don't kill him!" Nega's voice sounded from the robot. "Just... bring the child to me."

Understood, master," Metal answered. There was a click, signifying Metal turning off his communicator. "Sadly for the doctor's plans, I have my own," he said to Silver. The young hedgehog was confused, but soon got his answer. "My plans are a bit... quick," he said.

Sliver felt as if he couldn't breath. He felt tears streaming down his eyes, unsure what to do. "Goodbye, hedgehog," Metal said as he raised an arm. Silver was still silent as the robot's claws flew toward his face.

* * *

Silver's eyes were slowly fluttering open as he heard Blaze above him, trying to wake him up. "Silver! Get up, come on!" she shouted.

"Blaze, calm down, I'm... okay?" Silver was confused as he stood up and looked over the same dead grass and same giant tower he had seen a few minutes ago. He decided not to voice his concern, as to not confuse Blaze. "So... that should be Nega's base right?" the hedgehog asked.

"Well that looks like the huge base of an evil doctor, so I'd say yes," Blaze replied once again.

"Let's get moving then," Silver said. "If anything gets in our way, we're going through it." He then began moving forward with a determined look on his face. He grabbed hold of Blaze's hand and started running.

The same loud siren began sounding across Emerald Hill as the large robot army began pouring towards them. "Silver!" Blaze shouted, trying to get the hedgehog's attention. "Are you sure about this?" she asked.

"Just trust me!" Silver said, slowly speeding up. He swiftly made his way past the robots, narrowly dodging Motobug wheels and Buzz Bomber blasts.

The hedgehog once again held the emerald close as he reached the wall of robots. _"CHAOS BLAST!"_ he shouted, destroying the robots, but keeping him and Blaze safe. He looked to the left, seeing Metal Sonic flying quickly towards them, not too far away now. He stopped in his tracks, holding Blaze back as Metal Sonic flew past at an intense speed.

Silver then dragged Blaze straight through the door, into Nega's base. He immediately took a left, down a random hallway, unsure of where they were going. "Silver what are you doing?" Blaze asked.

"I want to keep moving," he answered. "We just can't let Metal catch up with us."

* * *

Only minutes after he rode away, Nack was regretting his decision. He believed his fear caused him to have poor judgement. Nack suddenly turned the Marvelous Queen around. "We're goin' back," he said.

"What are you talking about?!" Bean asked.

"It wasn't right to leave those kids behind," the weasel responded. "I'm gonna help them. If ya don't wanna help, get off my ride."

Bean seemed upset, "But-"

"Shut up or get off!" Nack shouted. The Hooligans rode in silence to the camp that was still set up on the shore. They eventually arrived and hopped of the Marvelous Queen. It was empty. The weasel was confused for a moment until something hit him. The chaos emerald was missing from his bag. "They're on the other side," he said.

"You can't be serious," Bean said.

"I left the emerald," Nack retorted. "Silver could have used it to cross." Bean didn't argue, or say anything, not wanting to admit defeat. They jumped back on the Marvelous Queen and sped off, hovering over the water.

The first few minutes after the mobians set off were quiet, almost a little too quiet. Nack looked down to see a small tremor in the water which seemed to be coming from somewhere ahead of them. The tremor suddenly became stronger, and a deep rumbling was heard.

Suddenly, something shot out of the water. The thing was a giant robotic serpent, decorated with red and dark gray. "Holy crap!" Bean shouted. "What's that?!"

"I don't care!" Nack answered. "I'm just stayin' away from it!" he said, swerving to the right, narrowly dodging the quickly-rising beast and getting soaked in the process. "AW, come on!" Bean shouted in anger.

"Shut up for a second!" Nack shouted back. He looked behind them to see the robot's head diving toward them. The weasel quickly pulled to the left, the robot's head hitting the water only a few feet away from them, sending sea water flying over them once again.

"Get us out of here Nack!" Bean demanded.

Nack was having trouble focusing on the situation. "I said, Shut up Bean!" he said. There was suddenly more rumbling, and another serpent exploded from the ocean. Nack's breath began to quicken in fear, barely dodging the two beasts chasing them.

"Nack, one of them's above us!" Bean warned. Nack looked back to see the serpent, then turned his attention to the right to see the other serpent. He had a plan. The weasel quickly stopped the vehicle and began moving backwards, watching forward. "What are you doing?!" Bean asked. Only moments later, the two robots collided into each other, resulting in a large explosion.

Nack stopped the Marvelous Queen, feeling a weight lifting off his shoulders. The three of them were breathing heavily after the intense situation. Nack began to chuckle lightly. "What's that about?" Bean asked, referring to Nack's laughing.

"Oh, nothin' much," Nack answered. "I'm just surprised we actually made it out of that. I mean... we're just doin' this for some kids." Bean was silent for a moment before joining in. They both just laughed for a short time, with Bark sitting silently next to them, as expected. They eventually settled down. "Okay, we should get goin'," Nack said, starting toward Westside Island.

The three mobians arrived in Hill Top about thirty minutes later. "Well, we finally made it," Nack said on arrival.

"Yeah, now all we have is another half a day until we get there," Bean said sarcastically.

Nack let out a light chuckle, "Shut it Bean," he replied. They then set off again, quickly making their way between the high mountains of Hill Top.

A few minutes had passed when Bean spotted something in the distance. "Hey Nack, look at that," he said, pointing to the left. The weasel slowed to a stop, looking in the direction Bean had gestured. What Nack saw was Metal Sonic flying towards Emerald Hill, carrying a familiar white bat, who appeared to have been knocked out, along with a chaos emerald.

"Let's just keep going," Nack said. "Maybe we'll run into them when we reach Nega's base. It wouldn't be smart to try and attack Metal in this area." The three mobians continued forward, making sure to stay a fair distance behind their metal enemy.

It was a few hours later when the Hooligans noticed the bat waking up. She began yelling at Metal Sonic, swinging wildly to try to hit her captor. She landed a few strong hits, tossing Metal around. Nack quickly turned away from their path to hide from Metal's sight, fearful that the metal hedgehog might see them with his constant movement.

When Nack returned to their path, he found Metal Sonic was nowhere to be seen. "Well I feel like we should stop and rest," the weasel said. "I was tense that entire time."

"Agreed," Bean answered simply. Nack and Bean hopped off the Marvelous Queen, sitting to the left of the vehicle while Bark stayed sitting on top. The mobians didn't do or say anything for a while. The just sat there, happy to be relaxing after their near encounter with Metal Sonic.

"Let's start moving again in an hour," Nack told the others. "We don't want to keep those kids waiting for too long," he said.

"Unless they're already dead," Bean responded.

"You're making me sound like a broken record today Bean," the weasel started, "but shut it."

* * *

A few hours later, Silver was running through Nega's base with Blaze. The two mobians didn't know where they were going, but they just kept moving. They eventually turned down a hall to the left, finding a large room resembling a small prison. They both began to move slowly, scared and unsure of what to do in the situation.

"Hey," the two heard a voice quietly call from their right. They turned towards the voice to see a red armadillo behind bars.

Silver walked up to the cell, "Mighty?" he asked.

The armadillo was confused after Silver's question. "Uh... Yeah," Mighty responded. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"Well uh-"

"You know what, whatever, just find a way to get me out of here," Mighty interrupted.

"Uh... okay," Silver said, despite having absolutely no idea what to do. He began looking around for something to help. He looked at Blaze, who was still standing in the middle of the room.

Suddenly, there was a quick blur that flew by, taking Blaze with it. Silver then looked up to see Metal Sonic with Blaze in his arms. "Blaze!" Silver shouted. Blaze appeared to have been knocked out by the robot.

"Metal!" another voice screamed. The voice was that of Eggman Nega's sounding through the prison. "The cat doesn't matter! Just get the hedgehog and bring him to me!" Silver was scared, unsure of the robot's intentions after his dream.

Nega seemed to have seen Metal's revolt coming, and the robot's response showed that the doctor must have tampered with him. "Yes master," he answered simply. Metal then lowered himself to the ground and began walking towards Silver, who was paralyzed with fear.

"Do something, kid!" Mighty shouted.

Silver held the Chaos Emerald close again. "Uh... C-chaos Blast," he said, but to no effect. The hedgehog was scared as Metal Sonic approached slowly. The robot was almost on top of him when he suddenly shouted a phrase almost instinctively, _**"CHAOS CONTROL!"**_ he shouted with his eyes closed.

When he opened them again, he found himself in the same place, but nothing was moving. Silver looked around for a moment, confused. He then looked down at the emerald in his hand, unsure of what exactly happened. The hedgehog then asked a simple question, not about anything specific, but everything that had happened in the past few days.

 _"What?"_


	6. Harmful Memories

"ESPIO!" the twin-tailed fox yelled into the darkness of the caves. The two mobians didn't know how long it had been since they started their search, but they suspected the sun must be setting at that point.

"You don't think something bad happened to him, do ya?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know, Knuckles," Tails answered simply. The fox tried to hide it, but he was scared. For years it had just been the three of them, him, Knuckles, and Silver. Far too many people that he believed he would never see again had come back into his life, and he didn't even know where most of them were. He was once again concerned for the safety of these old friends, and the stress was becoming too much for him to handle.

"Hey Tails, you see that?" Knuckles asked suddenly after a long silence. Tails looked deeper into the cavern to see a red glow far ahead of them.

The light then suddenly began to grow. "Run," the fox said.

"What?" Knuckles asked simply.

"RUN!" Tails grabbed the echidna's arm and began to run from the light. He then let go of Knuckles' arm and sped up, the red echidna moving next to him. The mobians ran through the winding tunnels, trying to put distance between them and the beast chasing them.

Knuckles had looked back just in time to see Metal Sonic almost on top of them. He quickly threw himself to the ground, pulling Tails down with him. The two friends felt the robot shoot over their heads before quickly getting up and running down a different path.

The two mobians ran for a few more minutes before realizing that they weren't being chased anymore. "Guess we got lucky again," Tails said with a light chuckle.

"Yep," Knuckles responded simply. "Let's try to get out of here," he added. "I need some fresh air."

The friends began making their way through the cave, trying to make their way to the surface. They had been walking for about an hour before Knuckles spoke up. "Shouldn't we be out of this cave by now?" he asked.

Tails didn't answer. His head felt foggy and he could no longer understand his friend. Before the fox himself had even realized it, he had collapsed onto the ground. "Tails!" Knuckles shouted, quickly picking up his friend.

"Knuckles," Tails spoke softly. "There's... something... in the... air." Knuckles began to feel the same fogginess his friend was. The echidna fell to his knees, desperately holding on to consciousness.

The red mobian looked farther into the cave to see the glowing eyes of Metal Sonic once again, slowly approaching them. Knuckles gently laid the now unconscious Tails on the ground before weakly pushing himself to his feet. Metal stopped, seemingly surprised to see Knuckles pushing through. The robot's surprise only stopped him momentarily however. He then once again slowly made his way towards the echidna.

Knuckles raised his fists, ready to fight to save him and his friend. He threw his fist forward before Metal could take another step. The robot grabbed his arm and quickly tossed him into the wall. Only a moment later Knuckles had lost all consciousness.

* * *

Tails had awoken in his workshop in the Mystic Ruins. He was confused, why was he here? The fox stood up and made his way to the door, afraid of what could be on the other side. His thoughts were quickly swept away as he opened the workshop door and stepped outside. Standing there, seemingly waiting for him, was his best friend. "SONIC!" he shouted, jumping into a warm embrace with the blue hedgehog.

"Where have you been?! You're not dead?!" Tails asked. He then continued without letting Sonic answer. "You need to see Silver! He's grown so much since you last saw him!" the fox said, constantly getting more excited. "I'm sure he'd love to finally meet his... his..." the yellow mobian's head once again began to feel foggy, but he tried to hold on to his consciousness.

Suddenly, Sonic began to run away. "Sonic, wait!" Tails shouted before running after the hedgehog. The fox ran after his friend for a short few minutes, yelling at him to stop running. Eventually, Tails couldn't take it anymore and fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

Once the fox had awoken yet again, he was strapped to a metal chair with a strange device attached to his head. Standing behind a control panel in front of him was Eggman Nega. "Hello Tails," the doctor said simply. "It's great to finally meet you."

"Where's Knuckles?" Tails questioned the doctor angrily.

"Oh, let's not worry about him," Nega answered. "I'm more interested in your attachment to the past. Like the fact that your dream had you in the Mystic Ruins, and Silver's father, Sonic being there to greet you." The doctor then walked around the control panel, moving towards Tails.

"So..." the doctor started, "Why don't we catch up? How have you been Tails?" he asked, shifting his voice to a forced, friendly tone.

"Well, other than being strapped to a metal chair, I'm perfectly fine," the fox answered sarcastically.

Nega looked slightly upset. "Oh, now don't be like that Tails," he said. "I know I may not be the same doctor you knew, but I do have all of his memories. And despite all of the great years we've had together, we've never really talked."

"What makes you think I'll start talking now?" the young mobian asked.

The doctor tried to give a friendly smile, but it came off as slightly psychotic. "Please lighten up Tails..." he started. "No one here is trying to hurt you. Now please, let us just talk about you."

Tails sighed, "What do you want?" he asked.

"Well, how do you feel about the people in your life?" Nega asked.

"What do you mean?" the fox retorted. "I care about Knuckles and Silver's well being, and I'd be happy to never see you again."

"But how do you _really_ feel?" Nega said, asking yet another question. "I mean... you're the smart one, the one that takes care of everyone else. Isn't that just a burden?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Tails burst out. "I would do anything for those two!"

Nega gave the fox a chillingly serious look. "But what about everyone else?" he asked. "All of your old friends you've met once again. They've just been dragging you down, making things harder for you. You've done far too much for them and they've done oh so little for you. You deserve better, don't you Tails?"

"Don't... talk to me..." the young mobian said, looking away from the doctor.

"Come on Tails, don't fight the truth," Nega said.

Tails continued to look away. "No, you're wrong..." he responded. "I love my friends."

The doctor let out a light sigh. "Alright," he started, "Take him away." Multiple large robots then walked up to Tails as his restraints clicked off, releasing him from the chair. The robots then began to lead the fox out of the room. "We'll talk again tomorrow , Tails!" Nega called out. "I hope you'll be more cooperative then!"

Tails was brought to a surprisingly comfortable room. There was a firm bed with soft pillows and smooth sheets, a privilege the fox had not experienced in a long time. He climbed into the bed, much to his surprise, falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

The young mobian woke up after a dreamless rest. The door to his room was open, and multiple robots, which where possibly the same ones from last night, were standing on the other side. Tails got out of the bed and let the robots lead him through the long, winding halls without argument. The fox was brought to a room that seemed very out of place in the doctor's giant metal palace.

Tails was in a very elegant dining room, with a fairly long table in the middle, and Nega sitting on the far side. "This setup seems a little cliche, even for someone like you..." Tails said to the doctor.

Nega seemed to ignore his statement. "Why don't you have a seat, Tails?" he asked, motioning to the chair at the other end of the table. Tails took a seat, seeing no way out of this situation. "Would you like something to eat, Tails?" As if on queue, many eggpawns marched in, carrying multiple plates of food.

There was a lot of different food, steaks, chicken, potatoes prepared in dozens of different ways, and so many other things that it was hard for Tails to take it all in. "This doesn't really seem like a breakfast," he said.

"That's because it's five in the afternoon Tails. You were asleep the entire day," the doctor answered. "Now, I've invited you to dinner, so please show some respect."

"Respect for the man who kidnapped me? _Sure,"_ Tails answered sarcastically.

Nega surprisingly kept his cool despite the fox's comments. "Please don't be like that," he said. "I am not here to threaten or hurt you," the doctor started. "Now please, just relax, and enjoy the meal prepared for us."

Tails eyed the food suspiciously. On one hand, why would Eggman Nega of all people do this for him? On the other hand, if Nega was trying to kill him, wouldn't he just do it? The fox decided to take a chance, picking up a chicken leg and taking a bite.

 _It tasted amazing._ The leg was the best thing Tails had tasted in a decade. He started stuffing his face with as much food he possibly could. The fox was so distracted by the food that he didn't hear Nega saying his name. "Tails!" Nega said from across the table, raising his voice but trying not to scream.

Tails finally put down the food, turning his attention to the doctor. "Yeah?" he asked simply, still not having completely swallowed his food.

"How would you feel about meals like this, whenever you want?" the gray-mustached man asked, giving the young mobian a strange grin.

"Well, that sounds like a blessing!" Tails answered, a strange, light pressure forming in his head.

Nega's smile began to grow. "Well I can give that to you," he started. "Only if... you pledge your allegiance to me."

The request was absurd. What made Nega think Tails would be on his side? That's the thought Tails was trying to hold on to, but the pressure in his head was starting to make it hard to concentrate. "I... I..." the fox could not get any words out. He just couldn't think. "I- I don't... I can't..."

"Come on Tails," Nega started, standing up and walking towards the fox. "It's a real simple answer. Wouldn't you want to stay here, and get anything you've ever wanted, whenever you wanted?" The doctor got close to Tails, kneeling down to his level. "You could get away from all of the people in your life. All of the people who have done nothing but hurt you."

"O-okay..." Tails finally answered, surprising himself. The pressure in his head began suddenly subsiding. "I'll join you," the yellow mobian continued, not entirely sure what he's saying.

"Good," the doctor said simply. "Now, if you're finished eating, I'd like to show you something."

"Okay," Tails said simply, standing up from his chair. Nega then began walking away, expecting Tails to follow, which he did. The pair walked through a few halls and down many flights of steps, the same large guard-bots on both sides of them. They walked through a large door and emerged in a fairly large, well lit room.

"This... is my newest creation!" Nega said, motioning to the robot in the center of the room. "Its name, Mecha Sonic Ultra!" The robot was a giant, being at least twice the size of the doctor himself, and sharing many physical similarities to the original Mecha Sonic, while sharing Metal Sonic's color scheme. "Impressive, don't you think?" the doctor asked.

Tails couldn't lie, he was impressed. But seeing the robot reminded him of his old friend, making him uneasy. "So, there is a reason I brought you down here," Nega started. "Believe it or not, I need your help. You see, I, and by 'I,' I mean myself and the original Doctor Eggman, have been working on this for a few months now, but I've never been able to get it right."

The doctor noticed Tails' disturbed demeanor. "Now Tails, this will be great!" he said with an optimistic tone. "Just think of what an amazing robot we could build together!" Nega then led the young fox to the back of the robot, which appeared to be completely opened up, revealing far too many crossing wires to count.

"So... what's the problem?" Tails asked.

"I uh..." there was a short pause from the doctor. "I have no idea what I'm doing. I was going for something here, but now it's just a mess of wires that has no function, and I can't figure out what the problem is."

"So we basically have to start over?" The fox said, asking another question.

Basically? Yes," Nega replied. There was yet another short pause before the doctor spoke again. "So, why don't we get started then?"

* * *

The red mobian had a very different awakening the day before. He once again found himself in a cell, but this time his wrists were chained to the wall, and to his left were Shadow and Espio, also in chains. They seemed to be in some sort of control room, with an enormous monitor on the opposite side of the room with a matching control panel, but no doctor in sight. His two friends were still unconscious, at least he hoped they were. "Espio?" He tried calling out to the one closest to him.

The chameleon began to waver as he woke, his vision slowly adjusting to his surroundings. "Wh- what the- Where am I?!" Espio began shouting, obviously frightened.

"Will you just stop screaming please?!" Shadow yelled over Espio, now suddenly awake. The purple mobian didn't know how to respond, so there were a few seconds where no one said anything. "Do either of you know what happened last?" the hedgehog eventually asked.

"I remember seeing Metal Sonic," Espio responded. "I... think I took a wrong turn in the cave, and before I knew it I was face-to-face with that beast."

"Well, Knuckles?" Shadow asked simply.

"Uh..." The echidna spent a moment trying to remember the event. "Tails and I were looking for Espio in the caves when things started getting weird. Eggman Nega must have released some sort of gas into the air. We just kept walking up but the tunnels seemed to wind forever, and I felt like I was seeing walls twist and pulsate while a weird pressure built up in my head. Nothing was making any sense, and then I suddenly passed out."

"So, what now?" Espio asked.

"Well as far as I know, nothing," Shadow responded. "I just wanted you to stop showing your fear in such a loud, pointless way."

"Can't we do anything right now?!" Knuckles asked, obviously wanting to move, or maybe punch something. "Where even are we?!"

"If I had to guess," the black hedgehog started, "I'd say we're in Emerald Hill."

"What?!" Kuckles shouted. "There's no way we got this close just to end up chained to a wall!"

"Stop screaming!" Shadow once again yelled. "My head is in intense pain right now, and your shouting doesn't help."

Knuckles tried to keep his voice lower, but seemed to get angrier. "I'm sorry if I don't want all my effort to be for nothing, Shadow," the echidna said, now gritting his teeth.

"Now is not the time to think about what we could be doing," Shadow responded, seemingly easily keeping his cool in the heated situation. "There's nothing we can do right now but wait."

Knuckles, not having anything else to say, didn't respond. He decided to take the hedgehog's word and wait. So that's what the three of them did, they waited for a few hours, Knuckles eventually falling asleep once again. Suddenly, large doors on the opposite side of the room flew open as Eggman Nega began walking in. "Hello my special little prisoners!" the round doctor said as he approached the cell the three mobians were held in.

"Let us out of here you jerk!" Knuckles said as he tried to pull his restraints off of the wall. Nega began walking over to the control panel.

"Now, now, don't go acting out like that," the evil doctor said as he pressed a button, giving Knuckles a light shock.

The echidna screamed. "Damn you!" he said quickly after. there was another, more powerful shock, and then Knuckles just sat there, not bothering to throw another comment Nega's way.

"Now, does anyone else have anything to say?" the doctor asked. Obviously, no one responded. "Good! Now if we can get on to more important matters-" there was a sudden light beeping coming from the control panel's giant monitor. "Gah! What now?!" Nega checked a few things before getting his answer. "Oh! My motion sensors seem to have picked up two organisms," he said with an uncomfortably gleeful tone. "A purple cat and a young... silver... hedgehog." The doctor chuckled a bit as he pushed down another button. "Release the badniks," Nega ordered with a sinister tone.

He then watched happily through an outside camera as the wall of robots approached the young mobians. Much to the doctor's surprise, the two young ones began swiftly making their way through his army. The three imprisoned mobians watched in awe as Silver and his companion quickly made their way towards the base. "What, how is this possible?!" Nega then pushed yet another button, "Metal! Get the child!" he ordered.

"Yes master," a robotic voice called from the other side.

The doctor let out a sigh, turning off the video feed. "That should have things taken care of!" he announced to no one in particular. "Now that that's done, we can finally get to business," said the evil doctor, approaching the fearful mobians with a sinister tone and psychotic smile.


	7. Trapped by an Emerald's Power

Just a few minutes later, Silver was standing in a prison, time frozen around him. He slowly looked around, unsure of what to do, so all he did for a short time was stand still. The hedgehog soon began feeling weak. He expected this to happen after using the chaos emerald, he just thought it would happen sooner. The young hedgehog began to lightly sway around before quickly falling to the ground, barely keeping consciousness. It was a short few moments before the silver mobian surrendered to his exhaustion, the emerald still held tightly in his hand as his eyes shut.

* * *

Three mobians were riding across Emerald Hill, towards Eggman Nega's giant base. "Hey Nack! Stop for a second!" Bean said, seemingly perplexed by something. Nack stopped the Marvelous Queen, turning his attention to the bird without a word. "Look at that!" the green mobian said, pointing behind the weasel.

Nack turned slowly, seemingly annoyed by the woodpecker's request. He was shocked by the sight he saw. Right in front of him was a small bird, suspended in the air, as if it had been frozen there. "What the...?" the mobian asked to no one in particular as he climbed off his vehicle and moved towards the bird. "I mean... you don't think..." Nack started, closely inspecting the small creature. "... that hedgehog could have anything to do with this, do ya?"

"I don't know..." Bean responded simply. "But we really don't seem to have any other reason."

The purple weasel had an uncomfortable look on his face as he jumped back on the Marvelous Queen. "Let's just not worry about it," he said, trying to reassure himself more than anyone else. "We've come too far to turn back now." They then once again sped off towards the base.

With everything frozen, nothing bothered the Hooligans during their travel. In just a few minutes the three were walking into Nega's base. Nack began heading left, and the others followed without argument. After a short few minutes the mobians arrived in a prison.

In front of them was quite an interesting sight. On the right, Metal Sonic was standing there, as solid as a metal statue, facing a cell holding Mighty the Armadillo, also completely still. In the metal beast's arms was Blaze, who appeared to be asleep. And to the left, Silver was lying on the ground, breathing heavily, clutching the purple emerald in his hand.

"He's not paused!" Bean said, stating the obvious.

Nack simply ignored the bird, making his way over to Silver and kneeling down to inspect him. "Well, if it's anything like last time then there's no use trying to wake him up," the weasel said, taking a close look at the young hedgehog.

"What are you even doing?" Bean asked.

"Makin' sure the kid's okay!" Nack responded angrily. "Don't ya see how he's breathin'?!" The weasel returned his attention to Silver as Bean walked over to Metal Sonic.

Bean was looking at the cat in the robot's arms for a few seconds before realizing something. "Hey Nack," he said, trying to get the weasel's attention.

Nack sighed before turning to the bird, "What?" he asked simply.

"What are we gonna do about this?" Bean asked, pointing to the figure in Metal's arms. Nack didn't have a response. He gave Bean an awkward shrug before turning back to Silver. Nack's face turned to one of extreme discomfort as Silver began lightly writhing while making sounds of discomfort, the chaos emerald still held tightly in his hand.

Nack began looking around. He was quickly realizing how unlucky this situation was. It was no use trying to wake up Silver, Blaze was trapped in Metal Sonic's arms, and Eggman Nega could possibly have the other six Chaos Emeralds. The worst part was that they were right in the middle of their enemy's base. At this point, the Hooligans seemed to have nothing they could possibly do.

They were stuck.

* * *

Silver was once again in the darkness of his own mind. He couldn't remember what had just happened, but he did remember running into Nega's base. The hedgehog began searching, much like he had before, for any sort of suppressed memory in his subconscious. It was a short time before he eventually grasped onto something, but much unlike the others, this didn't feel like a memory.

Chaos energy seemed to be flowing through the young hedgehog, morphing what may have once been a memory into something entirely different. The world began to quickly form around him as he simply stood there, waiting for whatever was to come. Eventually, Silver found himself in a familiar house, one which he recognized as home from his first strange memory. The difference this time was that he was in his regular body.

He began pacing around the room, glancing at random objects but not wanting to take anything in considering he didn't want to get attached to a room he may never see again. The young hedgehog sat down on a couch on one side of the room, trying to relax. He then quickly stood up and began pacing again. He was anxious about what could possibly happen in this place. "What's going on?!" Silver asked to no one while beginning to pace faster.

Suddenly, the front door began slowly opening. Sliver froze, still confused by this strange vision. He was not sure how to react when the door opened to reveal Amy Rose, someone he knew as a friend of Tails and Knuckles who had died years ago. "Hey Silver," she said, receiving nothing but a blank stare from the young hedgehog. "Is... something wrong?" the pink hedgehog asked. Once again, Silver did not respond. He simply stood there, not saying a word, barely breathing.

Silver could feel it. He knew that the woman standing in front of him was his mother. He ran to her, suddenly enveloping the hedgehog in a strong embrace. "Whoa! Calm down there!" Amy said in response, yet still hugging her son back.

Tears began pouring from Silver's eyes. He tried to forget that this was just in his head, all he wanted to do was stay right here. Silver didn't know how long he just stood there, hugging this woman he never truly met, but he didn't care. "So... where's your father?" Amy eventually asked.

"I... um," Silver started, unsure who his father even really was.

"Right here Ames!" spoke a voice from the stairs nearby. Silver turned around to see Sonic the Hedgehog walking down the stairs. Silver simply watched in awe as the blue hedgehog descended to the ground floor.

"Did you just get out of bed?" Amy asked, seemingly pretending to be annoyed.

Sonic chuckled lightly. "Gotta keep my energy up to be ready for Nega's next scheme!" he replied.

 _Nega._ The familiar name was unnerving to Silver. It was as if just hearing the name meant something bad was going to happen. "So, how's my awesome little guy doing?" Sonic asked, rustling the fur on the top of Silver's head.

"I-I'm doing great... dad," Silver responded, trying to sound casual while still taking everything in.

There was a short pause before Sonic responded. "... 'Kay bud," he said simply.

"Guys! there's an emergency!" shouted Knuckles, suddenly appearing in the still open doorway. Everyone jumped at the sudden noise.

"Jeez Knux, what's the problem?" asked the blue hedgehog.

Knuckles appeared to be out of breath, seemingly having ran a long distance to the house. "Nega's built a new robot. It's attacking Station Square."

The two parents looked at each other for a short moment before Sonic turned to Silver. "Stay here," he said simply before the two ran out, shutting the door behind them and joining Knuckles as he began running towards the city.

Silver stood still for far too long, debating on whether or not to follow them. He then realized that he had to remind himself that, whatever this was, it wasn't real. The hedgehog began making his way towards the door when it suddenly flung open, revealing a familiar mobian with a red shell.

"Hey Silver!" he said, a little too excitedly, moving into the house and seemingly making himself at home. "So looks like it's just you and me again, huh?"

"Uh... Yeah," Silver responded, wondering how often this happened.

So, how ya doing pal?" Mighty asked. "You uh... You still talking to that cat girl?"

"Well I, um," Silver mumbled, unsure what to say.

The armadillo then interrupted Silver's stuttering. "Do your parents even know how serious you two are?" he asked.

Silver began lightly blushing. "I- well I mean... uh..."

"OH MY GOSH, they don't even know about her do they?" Mighty asked as he began to laugh.

Silver was getting a bit annoyed, wishing he could just get out of there. He suddenly felt something in his hand. He looked down to see the purple chaos emerald right there in his hand. "Chaos Control!" he shouted suddenly. He was gone in an instant, appearing in front of SS Central Station, but things seemed different. The sky seemed darker and yet the air seemed warmer. Silver decided not to dwell on it.

Silver quickly heard the sounds of battle coming from City Hall. He made his way over as fast as he could, letting the thought of this not being real once again leave his mind. He was shocked by the sight he eventually saw. fire was almost completely surrounding the area as multiple heroes attempted to fight off a giant, hedgehog-based robot.

The giant beast, who appeared to show some similarities to Sonic, was swiftly flying around the area, easily dodging or blocking the heroes attacks. The familiar dark hedgehog was also there, and he attempted to throw himself at the robot. He was easily knocked away, flying in Silver's direction. The hedgehog was able to land on his feet, skidding to a halt in front of Silver.

He suddenly turned around. "Silver? What are you doing here?" he asked, shocked by the young mobians appearance.

"Shadow! Get back in here!" Tails shouted at him, seemingly not noticing Silver behind him.

"Get out of here," Shadow told Silver before running towards the robot once again.

Silver refused to back away. The solution seemed obvious, he could just freeze time and make easy work of the robot. He walked onto the battlefield and once again said those two familiar words, "Chaos Control!" _Everything froze._

Well, everyone froze. The flames still seemed to be blazing for an unknown reason. Silver then began making his way towards the metal beast, but as he approached, things began changing. The robot began to shift and grow, changing into something that seemed strangely familiar.

The beast was transforming into something Knuckles had told him stories about years ago. Although Silver never thought it could be real. Enormous pieces of metal began flying in from all sides, combining with the robot. A small piece of scrap metal flew by, cutting Silver's cheek under his left eye. Much to Silver's surprise, he began trembling as the monster's form was nearly completed. He dropped the emerald, releasing the area from his chaos ability.

It took everyone a second to realize what was happening. "No... No way..." Knuckles mumbled as he realigned himself and stared up at the forming creature. The mobians all seemed to fear the sight in front of them. Suddenly, the beast was complete. Two slits appeared on its head, one above another. the metal then pulled away revealing the beast's red eyes as it let out an ear-piercing shriek.

 _Metal Overlord._

The enormous beast loomed over them, growling, metal grinding against metal. The monster looked down at them, its eyes focused on Silver. "S-silver?! What are you doing here?!" Sonic asked.

"D-dad I-" Silver was cut off as the sound of the Metal Overlord opening its metal jaws. The beast then shot fire out of its mouth.

"Silver! No!" Sonic shouted as the flames rushed towards his son. Suddenly, the flames stopped. Silver didn't know what he was doing, or how he was doing it, but he began holding the fire back with his mind. He had to focus all of his energy on the fire to keep it from getting closer. He was soon weak, and hurting, but it was keeping him alive.

The hedgehog was doing his best, but he couldn't take it anymore. Silver fell to his knees, still using what was left of his strength to hold the fire back. Finally, he lost all of his strength, and the blazing inferno began flying towards him again. All Silver could do is scream as the flames engulfed him, completely erasing the hedgehog in mere seconds.

Silver awoke screaming, covered in sweat, breathing heavier than he ever thought he would. The chaos emerald was still held tightly in his hand. He looked around to see he was still in the frozen prison. Bean was standing next to Metal Sonic, Bark was standing near the entrance to the hallway, and Nack was sitting next to Silver, seemingly frightened by the hedgehog's sudden awakening.

Nack was ready to burst. He was about to start screaming when Silver suddenly curled up and began to cry. The Hooligans didn't know how to respond, so they didn't. All three mobians simply waited as they let Silver get out whatever feelings he had to get out. Silver seemed to be crying for what felt like it could have been an hour, even though no time truly passed in the prison.

Eventually, Silver was quiet, but still didn't seem to want to move. "So, uh..." Bean started. "Do we have any ideas on this yet?" he asked, referring to Metal Sonic. Suddenly, Bark began walking over. The polar bear slowly took hold of the robot's head before swiftly and smoothly tearing it off. "Well, that works," Bean said simply.

"Hey... Silver," Nack said, hesitant to speak to the hedgehog.

Silver also seemed hesitant to speak. "... Y-yeah?" he asked.

"Do ya know how to... make this all normal again?"

"Yeah... just gotta let go of the emerald."

"'Kay, great!" Nack responded. "But don't let go of it yet. I think we've still got some stuff to do here." The weasel stood up and began walking towards the hall. "C'mon kid. Let's get movin'." Nack then looked back to see the young hedgehog begin to doze off again.

Silver was struggling to stay awake, the emerald seemingly sapping energy from him. The hedgehog then felt the emerald slip out of his hand. "Kid, no!" Nack yelled as the emerald clattered to the floor. Everything began moving in an instant.

A commotion began rising in the prison as Metal Sonic began sputtering and buzzing before falling to the floor, Blaze falling in front of him. "What the hell was that?!" Mighty yelled. Everyone was scared and confused. No one was sure how to react.

"Let's get moving," Nack said again before storming out of the prison. Bean followed behind him as Bark scooped up Silver and Blaze before falling in behind the other two.

"H-hey guys wait!" Mighty yelled, but the Hooligans were already too far gone. "Come on guys! Get me out of here!"

The mobians were soon running up many flights of stairs, expecting to find Eggman Nega at the top. As they reached the top floor they were quickly able to find a large door they knew must lead to something important. Bark quickly set down the children before smashing the door in, once again lifting the two young ones over his shoulders and running in with the other Hooligans. The five mobians arrived in a pitch black room, the only light pouring in from the hall.

"Congratulations, you puny creatures!" sounded Nega's voice through the room. "But I'm afraid to say that this will be the end of your little adventure!" Bright lights suddenly flicked on, filling the room with a blinding glow. Once the mobians' eyes finally adjusted, they spotted a robot standing in the center of the room.

"I'd love to be the one to introduce you to your demise!" the doctor said with a sinister tone. "This... is Mecha Sonic Ultra!"

The robot then sprung to life, its red eyes lighting up and focusing on the Hooligans. It must have been well over twice their size. "Welp, were dead," Bean said, glancing anxiously at the others.

There was an uneasy pause before Nack responded. _"Shut up, Bean."_


	8. Questions with Strange Answers

**HypernovaSonic- Here it is, the longest chapter yet! sorry in advance.**

* * *

Eggman Nega was standing in a control room hidden in an area underneath his base, a cage holding three mobians behind him. The screen above his control panel showed five mobians in a mostly empty room, the room containing nothing but his latest deadly robot. "Hyper Mecha Sonic, attack!"

The robot then launched itself at the mobians, who narrowly dodged its attack. "Knuckles, look," said Espio, attempting to get the echidna's attention. Knuckles, who was still weak and hanging from his constraints, lazily picked himself up and looked at the screen. His attitude changed as he saw what was on the screen.

"Those jerks have Silver!" Knuckles shouted, not realizing the situation.

Shadow then jumped in. "How did they even get here?" he asked. The other two gave him a confused look. "We never saw them come in. No alarms went off, and yet Nega seems to be trying to stop them. We don't have the answers to when, why, or how right now."

Hyper Mecha Sonic then leaped into the air before launching itself at the Hooligans once again. Bark quickly placed the two children against the wall, grabbing the robot by the legs and throwing him across the room. The robot slammed against the wall, causing one of its arms to fall off.

"What?! No!" Nega yelled at the unexpected event.

"Heh, looks like you should put more work into your bots," Nack said with a smug grin.

"Don't be getting sly yet you little rodent!" The doctor then hit a button on his control panel, shutting off the lights in the room where the battle was taking place. There were many loud sounds coming from the room. Scratching metal, banging, and tearing before complete silence. Nega waited a few moments before turning the lights back on.

The room was covered in scrap metal. Bark was standing over the children while Bean and Nack were standing in the center of the room. "No! You've gotta be kidding!" the doctor shouted. Nega stood in silence for a short time, unsure of his next move.

Knuckles could feel the chaos emerald before he saw Nack holding it on screen. "Guys! Go down!" the echidna shouted, hoping the doctor's microphone was still on. "We're below you!" he added. Nega quickly shut off the microphone and shocked Knuckles once again.

The Hooligans acted quickly, Bark picking up Blaze and Silver as the other two ran out of the room. "No! No no no!" Nega started screaming. The doctor angrily looked at the cage behind him to see Shadow smirking at him. "Oh, don't get your hopes up yet!" he said with a sinister tone. "Those three can't find you if you're dead!"

Eggman Nega turned a dial on his control panel before moving his hand over to shock the mobians once again. The doctor began lowering his finger before everything froze once again.

* * *

Silver was standing there, having suddenly awoken from his sleep, holding the emerald in his hand. The difference this time being that the Hooligans and Blaze were not frozen. Silver quickly felt himself begin to waver. "H-help..." he called out as he felt like he was about to fall.

Nack, unsure what to do, reached for the emerald. Touching the gem made Nack instantly feel a difference. He felt weaker, but Silver seemed to be regaining energy. Blaze, who had also suddenly awoken, but still seeming slightly groggy, also placed her hand on the emerald.

She looked at Nack, as if believing he wasn't needed. Nack, unsure and uncomfortable, backed away, leaving the two young mobians holding the emerald. The two seemed to be standing strong together as they waited for the others to start moving. The Hooligans were confused, and yet slightly amazed. "Let's move," Nack said simply before moving towards the stairs.

The weasel struck up a conversation as they began moving down the stairs. "Okay, what the HELL was that?!" Nack asked, referring to the entire situation they had just gone through.

"I... felt something," Silver answered. "It felt like someone was in huge danger, so I guess I just instinctively grabbed the emerald to try and fix it."

"B-but..." Nack still felt confused, but wasn't quite sure what to ask yet. "How did ya know you two would be fine holdin' the emerald without me?" he eventually asked Blaze.

Blaze looked unsure of how to respond at first. "I just sorta felt it, like Silver did. It's hard to explain, but I felt like we would be okay," she answered.

Nack didn't respond. The weasel simply sighed and continued walking down the stairs. The mobians then finally reached the bottom. "We gotta find a way further down," Silver said.

"How do ya know that?" Nack asked.

"I don't really know..." Silver responded with a confused look. "Knuckles seems to have some sort of attachment to this thing, and it's just sorta... guiding us downward," he added.

"Alright," Nack started. "Lead the way then." The two young mobians then began to attempt to guide the others, despite not knowing specifically where to go. They eventually found a staircase on a random path that led down. The mobians descended to a lower level and made their way in the direction the emerald was guiding them.

They eventually reached a large door. "So, how are we getting through this?" Bean asked. Bark then walked up to the door, forced his hands between the cracks and pulled it open. "If you're just gonna keep answering my questions by braking stuff then I'm gonna stop asking," Bean added.

The mobians quickly made their way through the now ruined door. Inside they found Eggman Nega standing in front of a control panel with three mobians in a cage on the other side. "Knuckles!" Silver and Nack said simultaneously, although Nack used a more aggressive tone, which Silver quickly noticed.

"Leave your revenge scheme for after we're out of here!" Silver yelled at the weasel. Nack was surprised to find himself intimidated by the young hedgehog. The amount of power Silver was able to tap into using the chaos emerald was finally starting to sink in. He then slowly walked over to the doctor.

Nack then began to chuckle. "Well, well, well, looks like we got this jerk right where we want him." The weasel then looked down at the doctor's hand to see the button he was about to press. There was a lightning bolt on the button, and considering the doctor's evil grin, Nack knew exactly what it did.

"Whatcha doing, Nack?" Bean asked.

"I think this guy's about to shock those three to death," The purple weasel responded, referring to the caged mobians.

"What?! He can't do that!" Silver said in a frightened tone.

"Calm down kid, I got it!" the weasel responded. Nack began scanning the control panel until he saw a button marked "OPEN CELLS." He began laughing again. "Man, this guy's an idiot." The weasel grabbed Nega's wrist, repositioning his finger above the button.

"What's going on?" Silver asked as he and Blaze walked over.

"I'm just lettin' the doctor ruin his own plans," Nack responded with a light grin. "'Ey Bark! Get ready to knock this guy out!" he said to the polar bear. "Just let him push the button first." Bark then moved in front of the doctor as the others stood next to the cage. Nack then got down on one knee positioned his hand under the chaos emerald. "'Kay kids, drop the emerald!"

The two did as they were told, dropping the emerald into Nack's hand. He quickly stood up as Nega's finger fell on the button. "W-what?!" the doctor shouted as an alarm began to ring through the base and the prisoner's shackles released. Bark's fist suddenly connected with Nega's jaw, sending him flying into the air before falling to the floor.

"What's going on?!" Espio shouted as the mobians ran into the cage.

"Doesn't matter," Nack said simply. "Bark, get over here!" Nack said as he moved the purple emerald towards Silver. "Ya think you can get us outta here, kid?" he then asked the hedgehog.

Shadow then snatched the emerald out of Nack's hand. "Probably not, but I can," he said. Bark quickly joined the others as Shadow spoke the same phrase they had heard many times before. "Chaos Control!"

The mobians were then all directly outside the base. They saw other mobians pouring out the door, happy to get as far away from the building as possible. Knuckles then saw a familiar face. "Rouge!" he called out to the white bat who was flying away. She looked back for a moment before turning and continuing to fly away.

Suddenly, Knuckles and Shadow began to feel a strange energy from the base. "Move!" Shadow shouted before he began moving away from the base. The others soon followed him, not wanting to stay around to find out what he was talking about. They could soon hear it, a strange whirring began resonating from the base.

Shadow eventually stopped and turned around to look at the base, as did the rest of the mobians who had escaped. The sound began growing louder and louder. Then, in a flash, the entire building had disappeared. They all simply stood there for a moment, stunned.

"What was that?!" Nack eventually asked.

Before he got his response, Knuckles had a sudden reaction. "No! No, damn it! No!" he shouted as he began running in the direction of where the base was.

"Knuckles, wait!" Silver shouted as him and a few others ran after the echidna. Knuckles suddenly fell to the ground and appeared to be sobbing. "What happened?" Silver asked as he reached his friend.

"Tails was in there!" Knuckles responded. "He had to be..." Silver didn't know how to respond. he thought he had finally found all of his friends, and yet one of them seemed to be completely lost.

"Okay, I'll ask again. What was that?!" Nack asked to no one specifically.

"I would assume Nega had enough emeralds to teleport his entire base," Shadow responded. "How exactly he used the emerald's power, I'm not exactly sure."

"Hey, guys!" Bean said, mainly referring to the other Hooligans and Silver. "Blaze ran into the crowd. I have no idea where she is." Silver, Nack, and Bark moved urgently, while the rest simply followed, confused.

The crowd was immense, hundreds of mobians gathered in the area, and despite the recent confusion, friends and family were conversing loudly and excitedly, making it hard to find anyone in the condensed mass. "Blaze!" Silver shouted into the crowd. He was scared, unsure of his friend's safety. The young hedgehog began making his way towards the crowd.

"SILVER!" Knuckles and Nack shouted simultaneously as they grabbed his shoulders. The two then shot each other sharp glares.

"You can't just wander alone!" Knuckles said.

"We've already lost Blaze, we can't be losin' you," Nack added.

"Come on," the two mobians said together before taking hold of Silver's arms and walking in different directions.

"Guys... Guys!" Silver yelled. The two then let go of his arms, Knuckles looking at him with a confused look, as Nack's face appeared more annoyed. "Okay, you want to find Blaze," he started referring to Nack, "and you just wanna help me find my friend," he continued, this time referring to Knuckles. "We have the same goal here. So let's just work together."

The echidna and weasel just stood there for a moment, staring at each other. "Whatever," Nack replied angrily.

Knuckles sighed. "Sure," he said simply. The three mobians made their way into the crowd, Nack pushing through as Knuckles and Silver said "Sorry," and "Excuse us" to a few of the people they passed.

"Blaze!" Nack yelled randomly.

The weasel had carelessly yelled right in someone's ear. "Hey! Watch it!" shouted a large brown crocodile.

Knuckles began to tense up, recognizing the crocodile from the time he was imprisoned. He appeared to have narrowly escaped roboticization, having one robotic arm. "What did you just sa-" Knuckles then grabbed the weasel's arm and dragged him away before he finished his question.

* * *

Bark seemed to be one of the largest mobians there, being able to look over everyone. Bean was sitting on the bear's shoulders for a better view, and Espio seemed to be stuck with the pair. "Do you see her yet?" he asked the bird.

"Nope!" Bean answered. "But there's another purple cat over there!" he added, pointing a short distance away. The three quickly made their way over, not wanting to lose them in the crowd.

"Excuse me," Espio said, trying to get the cat's attention.

"Yes?" he asked simply as he turned to face the chameleon. The cat had dark purple fur, he showed strong features and a large bit of confidence in himself. Holding onto his arm was a white cat, seemingly a bit more timid and restrained than her supposed husband.

"You wouldn't happen to know a cat named Blaze, would ya?" Bean asked, still on Bark's shoulders.

The white cat began to tear up a bit. "Where is she?" The purple cat tried to ask calmly.

Espio wasn't sure how to respond for a moment. "That's the problem," Bean said suddenly. "We lost her."

Blaze's mother then began lightly crying, slightly hiding her face with her husband's shoulder. "What do you mean you lost her?!" he asked, trying to remain collected.

"She's somewhere in this!" Espio added quickly. "She ran in, I would assume looking for you. We were trying to find her before you caught our eye."

"Then let's start looking then!" Blaze's father said, seemingly wanting to move as soon as possible. The five mobians then began moving through the crowd, shouting the young cat's name as often as they could. They were soon questioned by a few other mobians, some of who joined in the search, eager to help any way they could.

* * *

Shadow was on his own, silently and quickly making his way through the crowd. He didn't bother calling out. From what he could remember, Blaze had never heard him talk before, and he didn't want to scare her away by shouting at her. The hedgehog soon caught sight of a purple figure to his left. He quickly made his way over. "Blaze!" he called out as he approached.

The cat turned around confused, backing away from Shadow sightly. "Don't worry," the dark hedgehog added, moving closer. "I'm Shadow, Silver's friend," he said, slightly twisting the truth to ease Blaze's nerves. The young cat simply nodded at the hedgehog, moving closer to him. "Let's go find the others," Shadow then took Blaze's hand and began to teleport around, trying to spot any familiar faces.

"Blaze!" the two heard a voice shout from somewhere around them.

"Dad?" the young cat asked simply before running away from Shadow and towards the voice.

"Blaze, wait!" Shadow said as he began to follow her. They heard multiple voices calling for Blaze as they continued to move forward. Suddenly, Blaze saw them.

"Mom! Dad!" she shouted as she ran towards the two cats. The young cat jumped into her father's arms as her mother came close and the three shared a large hug. The mobians around them began to cheer as the family was crying tears of joy.

Espio soon noticed Shadow and made his way over to the hedgehog. "Good job finding the kid," Espio said as he approached.

"What else was I supposed to do?" Shadow asked.

"I honestly just expected you to run, leave us behind as you went off to try and find Nega on your own or something," the purple mobian replied.

Shadow stood silently for a moment before saying anything. "I was debating it," he said simply. Espio gave him a confused look, but Shadow didn't look like he was going to say more.

* * *

A short time earlier, Silver was walking through the crowd with Nack and Knuckles. The weasel and echidna were arguing. "I needed the emerald shard so I could restore the Master Emerald!" Knuckles said angrily.

"And where's that gotten ya now?" Nack asked rhetorically. "Yeah, I bet that precious emerald of your's is sittin' up there in its little shrine right now."

"Hey! I-"

"Will you guys just shut up!?" Silver yelled over the two. "Do either of you think any of that matters now?" he asked.

"Hey, it's him holding the grudge, not me," Knuckles replied.

"Well I wouldn't be holdin' a grudge if ya didn't rob me of my reward!" the purple weasel shouted.

Knuckles' anger began rising. "Well now you've found me, and I got a reward for you right here!" he shouted back, punching Nack and sending him flying a short distance into the air before landing somewhere else in the crowd.

"Knuckles, why would you do that?!" Silver asked angrily.

"He was asking for it!" Knuckles responded. His action had caused the crowd to begin to stir. Some people were giving the echidna uncomfortable looks while others were simply confused what the commotion was about. Knuckles began to feel upset with himself, his body language suddenly becoming more reclusive as his breath became slightly heavier.

He looked over at Silver, who did nothing but give him a disgruntled look before running away in search of Nack. Knuckles didn't know why, but he felt ashamed. The echidna began moving in the direction he saw Silver heading. He found the other two a few seconds later, Silver was helping Nack sit up. The weasel seemed to be in quite a bit of pain.

Nack soon noticed the red mobian. "The hell you lookin' at?!" he asked angrily.

"I- I just wanted to say-"

"Say what? That you're sorry after knocking me off my feet?!" The two mobians simply stared at each other for a short time. "You better get out of here echidna, or I swear I'll-" the weasel's attention was suddenly grabbed by Silver, who looked at him with a stern expression. Nack didn't know how, but he knew what it meant. He sighed heavily, "I don't think this kid will let us stay mad at each other."

"In other words, _you're_ lucky we have a common ally," Knuckles replied with seemingly restored confidence and a smirk on his face.

"Well I'd probably kill ya if Silver wasn't here, so let's just agree to disagree on who's lucky," Nack said, although he still seemed unhappy about the situation. The mobians suddenly heard cheering a short distance away. "Let's hope that means the end of our problems," the weasel said as he pushed himself to his feet, appearing to have a bit of trouble doing so. "You're lucky I can still walk," he added, referring to Knuckles.

"Whatever," Knuckles replied simply as he and the others made their way towards the sound of cheering. They soon found their friends, and a few other mobians gathered around Blaze and who were assumed to be her parents. Blaze's father was holding the young cat in his arms as the family was laughing and crying, seemingly as happy as could be.

"Blaze!" Silver called out as he ran up to the three cats. Blaze's father gave the young cat a bit of a confused look.

"Who's this?" he asked with a smile while lowering Blaze to the ground.

The purple cat then moved next to her friend. "This is Silver," she said, gesturing to the hedgehog. "He's pretty cool," she added sheepishly.

"That's great to hear!" Her father said. "Well, while I do want us to stay close, you two should probably spend a little time together before we head off for somewhere to stay."

"What?!" Blaze asked, slightly shocked at what her father was suggesting. "I don't wanna leave Silver!"

"Sorry sweetie," The cat started as he lowered himself down to Blaze's level. "but I honestly don't really trust your three friends over there," he added quietly, referring to the bird, bear, and chameleon standing a short distance off.

"B-but-"

"Excuse me, sir?" Knuckles' voice called out as he approached. "I happen to be Silver's... uh... unofficial guardian and considering how long we've been chasing Eggman it would be nice for someone else to lend a helping hand if you want to come along, you know, to keep the kids together."

"Oh! Well, um..." The purple mobian wasn't sure how to respond at first. The man took a short second looking into his wife's eyes. "I would love to go into battle, especially with somebody as fight-ready looking as you." he said with a large smile. "But..." he then added, "I couldn't leave my love alone, especially with how things have gone recently... Do you mind if me and my wife have a moment alone?" the cat then asked

"Uh, of course not," Knuckles responded, confused. The couple turned away, and appeared to be quietly arguing with each other for a minute or two. They eventually turned back around.

"Okay, we've made our decision," Blaze's father said. "We are going to let Blaze go with you, if she wants to."

"Really?!" Blaze asked excitedly. Her father simply nodded. "Oh, thank you!" she shouted as she jumped at her father for another hug. They eventually pulled away, Blaze looking at her parents with a big smile on her face.

"So, where are you going first?" The dark purple cat asked.

"I'm not to sure," Knuckles responded. "It'll probably be best to just hang around until we figure out what's going on," he added.

The cat responded with another simple nod. "So, Blaze," he started. "Why don't you introduce me to some of your other friends?"

"Okay!" Blaze replied cheerfully as the three began walking over to the others, Shadow moving a few steps away, seemingly not wanting to be associated with the others.

Silver suddenly noticed something. "Hey, where's Nack?" he asked.

"Well, we sorta got into a little argument on who would come over to talk to Blaze's dad." Knuckles answered, pointing to the weasel a short distance away, lying on the ground and seemingly holding his abdomen in pain. Silver simply gave the echidna an upset look. "H-hey, it was his idea. He thought the only way to decide was physically," he added. Silver soon began laughing at the situation as he walked over to make sure Nack wasn't badly hurt. Knuckles simply watched him with a smile.

"Don't get too happy," the echidna heard a voice say on his right. He turned to see Shadow standing there.

"What are you going on about?" Knuckles asked.

"Your little fox friend is still captured and Nega probably expects us to still be here. We don't know how close he is and he could possibly attack us whenever he wanted." Shadow responded.

Knuckles sighed. "Do we ever get a break?" he asked.

"Well my fifty year break ended not too long back, but I wouldn't say that's the best example," Shadow said, although it was unclear if he was telling a joke or being extremely bitter.

"We should get everyone together and move out then?" Knuckles said, asking yet another question.

Shadow had his eyes closed, as if he was in deep thought. "No, let's let them have a few more minutes of ignorance before we drag them away," he answered, surprisingly kind for him. "It's what I wish I could have had," the dark hedgehog added in a barely audible voice. The two mobians simply stood next to each other, each taking in their surroundings in this strangely cheerful moment.


	9. Twisted Ideals

The next day, Eggman Nega was in the depths of his base, working on his latest hedgehog-based robot with a newly acquainted twin-tailed fox. "Come on, Tails," the doctor started. "You are taking far too long."

"I don't get what's going on here!" Tails responded angrily. "I told you we should take the whole thing apart and start over." The two scientists were struggling to work together. They had very conflicting views on what they were trying to do. At least, that's what Nega thought was happening, but Tails was already thinking of ways to get out of this situation.

Nega sighed as he began pacing around the room. "No, I'm not just going to take apart my creation to satisfy your needs," he said. The doctor's convincing, well thought out words that acknowledged Tails' problems and fears that he had used earlier were completely gone. Nega was now more characteristically cold and angry, and obviously not listening to the fox's recommendations.

"Okay, fine," Tails said, the angry tone in his voice rising. "Then why don't we try this?!" The fox then connected one last wire into the robot before climbing onto the thing. It suddenly shot into the air, crashing through the ceiling.

"W-what?!" Nega shouted as he ran to the spot the robot just was. He then looked over at his guard-bots. "Why are you just standing there? Stop him!" he demanded. The young mobian was on the move, quickly swapping around wires to control the robot. He expected the doctor's robots were already chasing him, but the fox had already smashed through multiple levels and assumed there was no way the robots would catch up.

Soon, Tails had crashed through the base's roof, shooting out into the fresh air. It was... cold. The fox looked down to find that the base was on the side of a giant, frozen mountain. _Ice Cap._ The yellow mobian was shocked as he looked at the mountains around him. He was too distracted to take control of Hyper Metal Sonic as the robot fell directly back into Nega's base.

The two figures crashed down, the robot laying still as Tails simply sat there, lost in his confusion. "How did we get so far from Hill Top?!" The fox asked himself. "I-I mean, we were heading to Emerald Hill, and Knuckles' dream had me assuming we were heading to stop Nega from doing... something, but Nega was nowhere near Emerald Hill to begin with?!"

Once Tails had realized he still had to escape it was already too late. Many robots had poured into the room, along with Nega himself. Multiple flying robots had also blocked the chances of an aerial escape. "Now Tails, that's no way to act," the doctor said with a menacing tone. Nega then pulled out a small remote with a few different buttons on it. "You'll never do something like that again, right friend?"

"What says I won't?" Tails asked.

"Oh, just my _other_ little friend here," Nega replied as he pushed a button on the remote. Tails suddenly felt a familiar pressure in his head. "Now, you won't behave that way ever again, understand" he said with an evil grin.

"Why don't you just shut it, Egghead," Tails replied, trying to remain confident.

 _"Don't you DARE call me that, you little pest!"_ Nega shouted as he pressed another button, increasing the pressure.

"Wh... what did you... do to me?..." Tails asked as he tried to raise himself to his feet, just to fall onto his hands and knees.

Nega chuckled as he approached the fox, leaning down towards the mobian. "Let's just say you have a very special device inside you, possibly my best creation yet," he said before rising back up and stepping away. "Sure, I could have easily roboticized you, or I could have just completely taken over your mind, But I believed this method would be much more entertaining," the doctor finished with an evil smile spread across his face.

"Now Tails, if you come back downstairs with me and do as you're told, the pain will stop, do you understand?" the mustached man asked.

"I do-don't c-care... if you ki-ill me..." Tails responded, barely able to support his weight at this point.

"Oh, I won't kill you Tails," Nega said. He then pressed another button, sending an electrical pulse through the fox's body. Tails screamed as he finally fell to the ground. "I'll just hurt you, little by little, but never enough to end your life. That would just be a waste." The doctor gave Tails light shocks again and again, receiving a scream from the young fox each time.

Nega eventually stopped shocking his victim, letting out a light chuckle as he made his way over to the fox. "Let's go Tails, we've got some work to do," the doctor told the mobian lying on the floor.

"No..." was all Tails could say. It came out as a light groan, the young fox still being defiant despite it seemingly costing him everything.

"Fine then," Nega responded simply as he raised the pressure in Tails' head. He gave the fox another shock, but he had become too weak to scream, simply gasping as the electricity traveled through him. He had tried to hold back, but the young mobian soon began to cry, tears falling from his eyes as he began clutching his head, the pressure still seemingly rising.

"S-stop," escaped the fox's lips in a short breath.

"Stop?" the doctor asked with a grin. "So, you're going to do what I say then?" he added. Tails simply shook his head lightly in agreement. "Great! Let's go then," Nega said, pressing yet another button. Tails was able to recover, but the pressure was still there.

"Turn it off," Tails demanded angrily.

"Oh, no, no," Nega started. "I'll turn it off when you get to work. I can't have you thinking up another escape plan after I just got you to cooperate."

* * *

The two soon found themselves in another room beneath the base. This room held Metal Sonic, who's head appeared to have been detached. "How did this happen?" Tails asked.

"That's unimportant, just fix it," Nega responded. The fox began reluctantly working without another word. The doctor seemed patient as Tails tried to figure out what he was working with, but the mobian didn't know if the man was just good at hiding his emotions.

"So, what happens if you die?" Tails asked after a long while of silence.

"What?" the doctor asked simply.

"Like, who would take over if you die?"

Nega sighed, deciding to indulge the fox for reasons even he didn't understand. "I have a very long lifespan Tails. Much like your friend Shadow, I was never born, I'm simply a creation, but unlike him, I am partly organic, so I will eventually die, but that is nothing to worry about now."

"But what if you did die? Like, what if someone killed you, then what would happen?"

The doctor was quiet for a moment. "Stop asking stupid questions, fox."

The next few hours were silent, all except the sounds of Tails working on Metal. The project then finally came to a stop. "Systems fully operational," Metal Sonic said as everything was put in place. "Current objective: Capture hed-"

"C-cancel current objective, Metal," Nega ordered quickly. "Power off, Metal," the doctor added. The robot powered down, its red eyes turning off immediately.

"Wow, you can do that?" Tails asked.

"Usually," Nega responded. "Although you know from experience that he can be defiant. Now, come along, it's been a long day and I can bet you are terribly tired." The doctor then led Tails up to the same room he had slept in the night before.

"Are you actually gonna let me sleep in here, or do you have a bed of nails for me to sleep on?" Tails asked sarcastically.

"Keep your mouth shut and get to sleep," Nega replied before shoving Tails into the room and shutting the door. The fox wanted to stay up and find a way to escape, but he was just too tired to keep himself from climbing into bed and falling asleep. The doctor assumed the day would have left Tails horribly exhausted, and he worried how tired the young fox would still be tomorrow. He quickly shoved the thought out of his head, wondering why it would matter to him.

"Return to your original positions," Nega ordered, causing his robots to move away. He said the order in a distracted tone, as if he was thinking about something else. The doctor began to walk, not having a specific destination. While he didn't try, Nega felt like he wouldn't be able to sleep if he did.

He was thinking about what happened after Tails' attempted escape that day. He had enjoyed toying around with the fox it in the moment, but for some reason the scene kept repeating in his mind, and it left him feeling slightly bitter towards his own actions. He eventually came to the conclusion that he must have just been upset with his decisions. He thought that he should have attempted befriending Tails, that it would make things much easier for him.

Nega had finally come to a decision. He would have Tails' memory of the day wiped, at least enough so the fox wouldn't remember his hostile intentions. The doctor began making his way back to Tails' sleeping quarters, now more confident in his course of action. After a short while of walking, Nega had finally realized how long he was thinking. "Jeez, I can't get lost in thought like that again or I might just walk outside and freeze to death before I even realize it," he told himself.

* * *

The day before, eight mobians had just made their way through Doctor Eggman's now desolate Chemical plant as the sun had already began to dip below the horizon. They were not exactly sure where their destination was, but they still continued across the open field in front of them, moving towards the Aquatic Ruin. They weren't moving too quickly, considering the fact that they didn't really have anywhere to go "I can't believe I lost my ride!" Nack said angrily. He had been complaining about this for a while now, but no one could get him to stop.

"It's your fault for leaving it so close to the base," Knuckles replied.

"Shut it, ya knucklehead!" Nack retorted.

Knuckles simply chuckled a bit as he stepped away, moving next to Silver. "Hey bud, how're you doing?" he asked.

"I'm... alright, I guess," the hedgehog replied awkwardly. "I mean, I still miss Tails. I'm surprised you're not more upset."

Knuckles was quiet for a short moment, "Tails is strong," he said. "I'm sure that no matter what's going on, he'll be fine." The echidna's words calmed Silver a bit, helping him return to his usual confident self. "Uh, hey Silver?" Knuckles started. "Have you always had a scar there?" he asked, rubbing his left cheek. Silver lifted his hand up to touch the spot below his left eye.

A small bit of pain shot through the young mobian as his hand touched the scar, as if the same piece of metal flew by and cut his cheek once again. "I, uh... guess I must have?" Silver lied, not wanting to make Knuckles worry, although he himself was extremely confused.

"Alright..." Knuckles said, also sounding a bit confused. The echidna decided to put the thought aside as he went over to Shadow. "So, what are we doing next?" he asked the dark hedgehog.

Shadow seemed to be in thought, and was unable to answer the question for a moment. "I'd say we just look for some place to rest," he responded.

The response annoyed Knuckles a bit. "But why? We should keep moving so we can stop Nega faster!"

"Look, I'm trying to be optimistic here, and I was thinking that Silver may be able to contact Tails with his powers." Knuckles simply gave the idea a small nod before making his way in front of the group.

"Hey guys!" he began, getting everyone to stop in front of him. "I'm pretty sure everyone has had a long day, how about get some rest?"

None of the others had any argument, despite Nack looking like he wanted the come up with one, so they decided to go along with it. The mobians then settled down, some of them simply sitting down while others were desperate for sleep. Knuckles sat down near Silver, and was happy to see the young hedgehog sleeping only a few minutes later. The echidna looked off to the horizon, seeing only a small bit of light left at the bottom of the sky. He was feeling horribly exhausted, and found himself slowly falling to the ground only seconds later.

* * *

Knuckles awoke looking up at the sky, the sun directly in his eyes. "Gah! Why'd we sleep so long?!" he asked angrily as he shot up.

" _You're_ the one who slept too long, ya numskull," Nack suddenly responded. The echidna then looked around, confused, to find that they were already deep in the Aquatic Ruin.

"We were taking too long trying to wake you up, so we decided to start moving anyway," Silver added.

"Oh, okay..." Knuckles replied simply. He looked around again as he began to feel a little uneasy. "Uh... has anyone gotten hurt?"

"Everyone's fine, Knuckles," Espio responded.

The echidna then let out a sigh. "Great to hear," he said. "I'm just surprised you guys haven't gotten yourselves killed with all the traps around here."

"Well that could still very well happen, echidna," Shadow chimed in. "Possibly sooner than you may think," he finished with a strange smirk, giving Knuckles a bit of an uneasy feeling once again.

"Uh... okay Shadow..." the echidna responded as he finally pushed himself off the ground. Suddenly, there was a light click that came from behind him. He swung his head around just in time to see an arrow shoot out of a totem pole. The red mobian wasn't even able to scream before he was pulled to the ground, the arrow shooting over his head.

Knuckles looked to see that the black hedgehog who had given him the eerie warning was the one to pull him down. "Shadow!" he shouted. "Did you know that was there?!"

"I may have..." the hedgehog replied with a slightly evil smirk.

"What? Are you trying to get me killed or something?!"

"Well I expected you to be able to dodge it, and I'm the one who saved you anyway."

Knuckles simply sighed at the response. "Whatever, but that was too close. Don't ever try something like that again," he demanded.

"Whatever you say," shadow said, the smile never leaving his face.

"Let's just get out of range of this thing and keep moving." The echidna then crawled a short distance away before standing up and making his way to the front of the group. "So, did you get anything last night?" Knuckles asked Silver as they began to move forward.

"Not a thing..." the young hedgehog replied sadly.

Knuckles seemed a bit upset for a short moment. "That's alright, I'm sure we'll get some sort of lead soon," he eventually said. The group remained uninterrupted for a short time, minus a few small traps scattered throughout the ruins. They expected to get through quickly, much like the Chemical Plant, but soon they heard a soft rumbling coming from somewhere near. The mobians where confused, but they assumed their thoughts would be answered behind the wall that had began crumbling in front of them.

The rubble fell the ground to reveal nothing but a small, red robot, a grounder. They then all let themselves relax, except for Silver and Blaze, who were still unsure what the thing was. "Don't worry kids," Knuckles said simply as he walked over to the now approaching robot, preparing to swiftly punch it to scrap-metal. "Grounders are nothing to be afraid of," the echidna finished as raised a fist to throw at the robot.

 **"Welcome, travelers!"** the grounder announced in a muffled, metallic voice. **"How are you doing on this fine day?"** The robot's words left the mobians confused, none of them knowing how to act. **"OH! Yes, that's right,"** the robot began saying to itself after the brief silence. **"I, along with my friends, have no connection with Doctor Robotnik,"** it said, attempting to reassure the mobians of its friendly intentions.

"Uh... okay," Knuckles said, finally lowering his fist.

 **"Would you like to come inside?"** the grounder asked, using one of its drills to point towards the hole it had just made.

The mobians were once again silent for a short time. "No, thanks," Shadow eventually replied, making his way next to Knuckles.

 **"Come on, friends!"** the robot practically begged with the kindest tone its voice could make. **"We've never had a guest turn us down before. Would you please come in?"**

"Eh... why not?" Nack said, suddenly joining in. "It's not like we even have anywhere to go."

Knuckles sighed. "Yeah, sure. We'll come in," he said.

 **"GREAT! Come along now!"** the grounder said as it turned around and reentered the wall. The mobians followed behind the robot, becoming slightly uneasy as the smooth brick hall that had apparently always been there became dark around them. They soon saw sunlight again at the end of the tunnel, lifting their spirits. They soon found themselves in a large, circular room with many grounders moving about, a hole in the ceiling pouring light into the area. **"Welcome to the worshiping room!"** the grounder announced.

"Worshiping room?!" Silver asked in a shocked voice. The grounders had seemed to all settle in place, surrounding a pillar in the center of the room, and resting on top, what appeared to be the head of a robotic chicken.

 **"This is where we pay tribute to our lord, THE GREAT SCRATCH!"** the robot announced so loud that it caused the room to rumble slightly.

"The Great... Scratch?" Silver said, asking another question, feeling as confused as the rest of his friends.

 **"Yes! We have lived under his might for as long as we can remember,"** the grounder answered. The head, which had been standing, had appeared to be tapped by something and began to wobble. **"It's time!"** said the grounder as it moved into its own spot. The head then fell over, its empty eye sockets pointing at one of the grounders surrounding it.

 **"I've been chosen!"** the grounder announced as it made its way over to the pillar. **"Take me, Great Scratch!"**

 **"TAKE HIM!"** the surrounding grounders chanted.

"Uh... let's get out of here," Shadow whispered to Knuckles. They started making their way out before they were interrupted.

"Wait, I wanna see how this turns out," Bean commented.

"What? No way, we're getting out of this nut house," Nack argued.

"C'mon, let's see what's going on here," the bird retorted. The rest weren't exactly sure how, but they were somehow convinced to reluctantly stay.

 **"TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM!"** the grounders continuously chanted, causing the room to shake around them. Rocks began falling from the ceiling, a small boulder directly above the "chosen" grounder. The robot was crushed by the boulder as the grounders around it began to cheer.

 **"Brothers!"** announced a slow, deep voice from one of the joining halls. **"We must now hear the wise words of the Great One!"** Another grounder rolled into the room, a green one.

"Who's that?" Knuckles asked one of the grounders near them.

 **"He's the translator,"** the grounder told them. **"He is the only one who understands what the Great Scratch says."**

 **"Now brothers, please quiet down so I can hear the great words!"** The green grounder asked of the others as he took hold of Scratch's head, holding it to his own head. **"Oh... yes... He is telling me... telling me... things."** It was obvious to the mobians that the grounder was lying, and poorly. The grounder then noticed the group standing near one of the halls. He seemed to know who they were, despite them not knowing the robot. **"He says he doesn't like those mobians,"** the grounder said. **"He smells a familiar hedgehog on them."**

 **"Hedgehog?!"** the other grounders began wildly questioning. **"What hedgehog?"** some asked, and **"You mean Sonic?"** others asked.

"I... thought you had no connection to Eggman..." Knuckles whispered to the same nearby grounder he asked earlier.

 **"Well yeah, we don't talk to him, but we're still his robots, all the same ideals and morals and such,"** the grounder responded, seemingly seeing no problem with the situation despite his words.

"Oh, come on..." Knuckles groaned. "Let's get out of here," he told the others before beginning to run out.

 **"Stop them!"** the green grounder shouted. Suddenly, the hall was blocked off by a large wave of grounders. **"The Great Scratch doesn't want these friends of the hedgehog leaving. They must be sacrificed to Him!"** the grounder demanded.

 **"SACRIFICED!"** the grounders began chanting as they moved in on the mobians.

"Somebody better think of somethin' quick!" Nack shouted angrily.

Silver was breathing heavily, trying to find something to do. Suddenly it hit him. "Shadow, emerald!" he demanded simply. The dark hedgehog was confused, but handed over the purple emerald in hope that the young hedgehog's plan worked. Silver took hold of the Chaos Emerald and held Shadow's hand to the jewel with his other hand, hoping the support would help energize his abilities. "Chaos Blast!" the hedgehog shouted. A blast shot out of the hedgehog tearing through all the robots around them, but not harming the mobians.

The entire structure had begun falling apart. "Let's move!" Shadow shouted over the rumbling, although he seemed distracted, shocked by what Silver had done. The mobians began to make their way out, running over the scrap metal of dozens of grounders that stood there moments before.

 **"Stop, you fiends!"** shouted the green grounder, who somehow survived. **"You will pay for your actions!"**

The mobians made their way back into the sunlight, the tunnel crumbling behind them. "Man, that was close," Knuckles commented.

"You think?!" Nack responded angrily. "I mean, what even was that?!"

"That doesn't matter now," Shadow answered. "It's behind us. All to do now is to continue forward." None of the others had any sort of argument, so they did just that. They once again continued through the ruins, trying to forget the strange events that had occurred.

* * *

 **HypernovaSonic- Having intense writer's block and don't know how to continue your story? Weird grounder cult! That's apparently how my mind works. I have literally no idea where this idea came from, but I hope this chapter didn't end up terrible because of it.**


End file.
